A coalition of black teachers and community leaders are seeking changes to boost the academic achievement of black children in San Diego County schools, from training school staff in race relations to offering more optional classes on African American history.
"Our children are beyond a state of emergency," their report reads. "They are experiencing on a daily basis a mental/educational death."
African American students, as a group, have higher dropout rates and lagging test scores compared to the county average. This isn't the first time that someone has tried to highlight the problem and possible fixes: Black leaders created a similar "blueprint" for helping students in the 1980s.
Some schools are already following those earlier recommendations, but other ideas have been abandoned or inconsistently applied, said Wendell Bass, president of the local Association of African American Educators. Bass said the goal is to set up a clear
