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Mar 25, 2009 5:42 pm US/Central
GP Principal Tries to Motivate Minority Students
GRAND PRAIRIE (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
A high school principal in Grand Prairie used an unusual tactic to motivate some students to do better on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills or TAKS Test.
At question is whether Grand Prairie High School principal Joseph Showell singled out students, or if students single themselves out, based on their individual test scores.
Showell said he knew he had to do something. "We had to develop a plan to communicate to the students exactly what they were doing to themselves and how we can help them be more successful."
The principal had a heart-to-heart, no nonsense conversation with some 60 African American students. The teenagers had been underperforming on state required math and science tests.
Showell challenged that the students 'can and should do better'. "That's exactly what the tone was. I mean, students understand that our expectation is that they're successful," explained Showell. "One of my greatest pleasures, if you will, as principal, is to shake their hand when they walk across the stage and I'd hate for that to not happen because students weren't successful on the TAKS Test."
Apparently, some students appreciated the honest approach, while others said the conversation negatively judged them because they're African American.
To meet with a specific racial group of students, over a school's academic performance, could generate a thunderstorm of controversy. The beginning of those rumblings – a call placed to the NAACP. "I think that parents should no longer accept that their student is performing poorly," responded NAACP member Angela Luckey. "Parents need to get behind the principal and they need to have high standards for their student; their child."
In schools all over Texas, test scores among Hispanic and African American students, on average, sit below White students.
Dallas school board member Ron Price applauds the approach taken by Principal Showell. "Those children need that tough love, but great love," said Price. "That's what the principal at Grand Prairie did. He gave the children tough love and some of our children need that type of love."
Showell has approached students before about their academic performance. He did it last year and believes those conversations had an impact that resulted in test scores going up.
The final numbers for test scores this year aren't in yet.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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