Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture hosted Science for Social Change: Understanding the Racial Achievement Gap. Keynote speaker was Dr. Roland Fryer, the NYC Dept. of Education’s first Chief Equality Officer. Hired to advise Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein on achieving equity in education for all city students and narrow the racial achievement gap, Fryer boldly proposes financial incentives for students that achieve certain academic milestones.
Dr. Fryer asserts there should be “more facts, less politics in education.” Although these facts should be obtained through scientific studies, Fryer warns to beware of “methodology”. He points to studies such as “Ice Cream Causes Shark Attacks”, “Doctors Cause Yellow Fever” and “Culture causes Achievement Gaps”. Fryer believes we need an “FDA of Education”, contrasting how medicines are studied for safety and efficacy prior to approval for consumption with the implementation of education programs that have not been analyzed for effectiveness.
Fryer earnestly stated, “I need your help” to improve education outcomes for all NYC students. According to Fryer, it seems education “is a product for producers, not the consumers. Our children are the consumers. We as a community have to decide ‘No more’.”
Fryer believes education is the “fundamental civil right.” The “huge disparities in outcome” created a “crisis.” Fryer stated “giving kids incentives for doing well in school makes education tangible.” He explained some children cannot see the long-term benefits of education because they have little or no models of how education leads to a successful, positive life.  You cannot ask children to “look down a path they have never seen anyone go down.” Children emulate what they see.  (A handful of middle school young ladies have told more than one educator they “don’t need an education.” Their life goal is to “have babies and get a project apartment.” No one has told these children that taxpayers- Black, white, conservative, liberal- are not  going to advocate for the building of more projects to house yet more single-parent welfare babies.) For Fryer, “short-term incentives bring long-term goals.” Fryer added, “Make no mistake, children on the Upper East Side have incentives for doing well in school.”
Dr. Fryer gave, by example, his incentive program currently being implemented in Dallas. Children are paid $2.00 a book as incentive to read. After reading the book, children take a test, and only after passing are they paid the $2.00. The Dallas program limits the $2.00 incentive to 20 books a semester. Dr. Fryer found some students read 36 books a semester; they were not paid for the additional 16. When Dr. Fryer asked one young man why he read the additional 16 books even though he would not be paid for them, the answer was, “I was not going to let my friend read more books than me.” Dr. Fryer smiled as he recalled this concrete way to develop an internalized  love of learning.
Dr. Fryer believes cost-benefit analysis and focus on the economic motivations of humans also applies to children. During an assembly at a NYC school currently implementing Fryer’s financial incentive program, a young man shouted out, “Dr. Fryer, now this is a program I like.”
Dr. Fryer feels so strongly about incentives he suggested an expansion. Mayor Bloomberg has recently consented to a pilot program that would award cell phones, free minutes, sports and concert tickets to all students in NYC’s 4 Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter schools and 20 schools affiliated with New Visions for Public Schools starting in January. There is a planned expansion of the program into additional schools next fall. Although Bloomberg maintains his administration’s  policy of not allowing cell phones in public schools will stand, the phones will be a powerful tool to motivate students.  
Fryer intends to “brand” academic success, not just with the phones, but with motivational text messages that encourage attendance, promote study and congratulate for achievement. It is hoped that icons of popular culture, such as Chris Rock and LeBron James, will send text messages to students for academic success. These phones may well become the next “must-have” among middle-schoolers.
Dr. Fryer’s childhood experiences led him to question whether the condition of Black communities can be entirely blamed upon racism, or can individual behaviors contribute to the situation.

Kidnapped by his father and kept from his mother, Fryer grew up in a sometimes-violent household with an alcoholic father. Most immediate family members on his father’s side sold drugs, went to prison and experienced premature death. A couple of near-brushes with law enforcement  convinced Fryer to concentrate on school. Fryer’s saving grace is his paternal grandmother – a schoolteacher and a strict old- school disciplinarian. His  grandmother taught him many life skills including the ability to compete.  A sports scholarship took him to college, where this high achiever found he had a natural affinity for math. He graduated from college magna cum laude in 2 1/2 years with a degree in economics; completed his dissertation in 3. Fryer is now at Harvard University, where he is assistant professor of economics and associate director of the DuBois Institute for African and African-American Research. Fryer’s academic acumen earned him many grants, fellowships and honors. Fryer knows first-hand the power of financial compensation coupled with good grades.
Considering where Fryer comes from, he can’t help being an “environmentalist”, believing that environmental factors contribute largely to the success or failure of Black students. Fryer boldly believes  financial incentives awarded  to minority students can produce better grades. 
Fryer applies his knowledge of advanced economics to apply cost-benefit analysis to a wide variety of sociologic studies, mostly with racial implications. He is unafraid to test common myths and assumptions. Most of his topics of interest come from growing up Black and his intimate knowledge of some aberrant African-American lifestyles.
Fryer writes of the Black-white test score gap, the Causes and Consequences of Distinctively Black Names, both economic and empirical analyses of “Acting White” and  interracial marriage. With a mathematical eye, he parses segregation and affirmative action, political districting plans, the impact of crack cocaine on African-American communities and the Causes and Consequences  of Attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Dr. Fryer’s Model of Social Interactions and Endogenous (originating within an  organism or part) Poverty Traps explains what happens in a community when individuals 1) invest  in and value group-specific knowledge (such as language and culture) at the expense of labor market success, 2) eschew immersion in group knowledge in favor of labor market success (by, for example, specializing in computer programming), or 3) either invest all of their energies into human capital, or they do not invest anything. Fryer’s model explains what happens when highly trained professionals in a group take advantage of desegregation, leaving pockets of poverty, as has happened with  African-Americans, American Indians,  Amish, Hispanics, West Indian immigrants, Sephardic Jews of Israel, Australian Aborigines and French Canadians, especially in Quebec and Montreal.
Information regarding Dr. Fryer’s financial incentive program is so tightly guarded, no information can be readily found on the NYC DOE website. Although privately funded, the program apparently has no name. Word is only schools with 80% or more Title l students (those entitled to free school lunch) are eligible to participate. Sadly, some schools with the requisite number of free-lunch eligible students did not qualify because not enough parents completed the school lunch forms. Published reports say the program awards $500.00 to 4th and 7th graders  for  satisfactory performance on standardized tests.
Those whose resistance-to-change in on automatic pilot tried to find logical reasons to reject financial incentives for children who strive for good grades, but they couldn’t. Teacher’s union members and a wide variety of community based groups tried to say ‘Children should acquire an education for education’s sake,’ but they don’t tell this to their own children, whose lives are programmed with test prep services, extra curricular activities, and ‘helicopter parents’- all with the goal of getting into the best colleges for recruitment into well paying jobs.
Dr. Roland Fryer is proof that an educated Black man is valuable. His financial incentive program for student academic success is guaranteed to produce many more.

Commissioner Kelly Blasted for Rush to Judgement
By David Mark Greaves
We were startled to see 18-year-old Khiel Coppin’s blood still on the street Wednesday morning, two days after being shot by police who said he had refused to obey an order to stop walking toward the officers.  The officers say Coppin made a menacing gesture with what turned out to be a hairbrush, and they fired 20 shots from their positions of cover behind their cars.   After hitting Coppin at least seven times, the police then handcuffed the bleeding Coppin for transport to Woodhull Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.   
They had been called to the Medgar Evers Apartments at 560 Gates Avenue after Mr. Coppin’s mother, Denise Owens, contacted 911 because he was threatening her.  On the 911 call, Coppin could be heard in the background shouting that he had a gun.   On a second 911 call, Mrs. Owens told the operator that her son did not have a gun.  When the police arrived at the apartment, Coppin exited a window, and the deadly events unfolded. 
New York City Councilman Albert Vann, in whose 36th District the shooting occurred, noted that the only information available is what the police commissioner said.  “And he spoke before the district attorney had completed his investigation and before the autopsy.  So there is no verifiable information yet.   All we know is that Kheil Coppin is dead and that he was shot by police.  We know Kheil was a troubled young man and he should have been treated as such.”
A young man from the neighborhood, “Dublo 7,” said that “within the first 24 hours of the boy dying, Kelly said that the murder was ‘within departmental guidelines.’  All the information describing what happened is being filtered by the police.”   Asked what did happen, Dublo 7 said, “What happened was that individuals with a shield on their chests, let go 20 bullets in the direction of a young man and killed him.  If they took their badges off and did it, they’d be prosecuted for murder.”
Councilman Charles Barron said, “This is total madness.  The police are out of control.  Years ago a young Black man had a candy bar, they shot him. Then we had Randy Evans, years ago, had an Afro pick.  They shot him.   Amadou Diallo, they say he had a wallet.  They shot and killed him.  Brother up in Harlem, they say he pointed his finger.  They shot and killed him.  This is insane.”
That was a sentiment that resonated in the neighborhood.  “The cops, they crazy, they scaring us out here,” said Buddy Love, a young man from the same housing where the shooting occurred.  “They stop us for any reason.  They want us locked up.  They don’t like us. They’re grabbing us up.  Riding a bike on the sidewalk, throwing a cigarette in the street, spitting on the sidewalk, why do you want to lock us up for some little stuff like that?  They really think we’re that dangerous and it’s them that are dangerous. They walk around with guns.  Why you pull out your gun and all he had was a brush?”
Black elected officials and the leadership of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Greater Central Brooklyn, including local residents, grassroots, national and regional community organizations, are uniting in sympathy and open support for the family of Khiel Coppin. “We are committed to guaranteeing that justice will be served for Khiel and embattled young black men in Bedford-Stuyvesant and beyond,” said Councilman Vann, in announcing the major press conference to take place Friday, November 16th, steps from the site of the tragedy.  “As we express our sympathy, we also are speaking out to assure that there is a strong, unwavering voice for the voiceless everywhere.”
On the day we visited the shooting scene, the voice of Malcolm X was coming loud from  Efron Cherry’s car.   Efron, a street educator, not uncommon in the neighborhood, said, “We are a people that are in trouble and until we become a people that makes them respect us as the human beings we are born to be.   I’m out here not just to make the police realize that they’re wrong for pulling the trigger, I’m out here to tell my people that we’re wrong for not making them understand that as a people, we will not tolerate it.  Which means we will not do the things to ourselves that are making us weak.  We will not destroy us, and we will not sit back and let them destroy us.   That’s why I’m out here.” 
Councilman Barron says, “We should decentralize the police department and make it more responsive to the local community.  We should also be able to vote for the police commissioner.  It should be an elected position.”
Regarding “acceptable police guidelines, Barron said, “The police are going by their fear, their perception of a gun.  They do not go by the actual gun.  Their argument is that the police have only seconds to make that determination.  But why doesn’t that happen in the white community?  The Gideon Busch case in 1999 is the only time you heard about a white person being shot for no reason. (Officers said Busch was threatening them with a claw hammer.)  They seem to be able to make those determinations in the white community when they are apprehending suspects. 

Asked if there was a relationship between the fact of public housing, low income enclaves surrounded by homes and condos selling for $700,000. “absolutely.  I think the method of policing is to move us out of these neighborhoods.  Gentrification is coming hand-in-hand with police terror. It’s almost like they’re clearing us out for the white folks.  They’re using police harassment, housing policies-building 421a housing with 80% luxury and 20% affordable that you can’t really afford.  We’re number one cases of HIV/AIDS.   We have colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer.  We are the most unhealthy with the least health facilities.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that all of these things are happening at the same time.”  Wake for Kheil Coppin is Monday 3pm-9pm, Nazarene Congressional Church, 506 McDonough Street at Patchen, and the funeral is on Tuesday at 12 noon.

Thanksgiving Day is one of the three days during the year that the African Burial Ground National Monument Memorial is closed to the public.  Kind of unfortunate since queuing up to give thanks and appreciation to the enslaved and free Africans of 17th and 18th century Colonial New York beats standing and watching a holiday parade long surrendered to extravagance and cartoon characters.   Four hundred years ago, an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Africans and African-Americans were buried in 6.6 acres between today’s Chambers and Reade Streets, Broadway and Centre Streets.
Rodney Leon’s African Burial Ground memorial, a tall granite mass at African Burial Ground Way and Duane St., points east to artist’s Lorenzo Pace’s memorial to the Middle Passage, a block away in Foley Square.
As we walk through the City Hall and Foley Square area, these memorials created by two Brooklyn residents remind us of the   importance of holding on to ancestral memory and our own histories, traditions and values.  Pace’s memorial is freestanding.  The African Burial Ground National Monument memorial is opened daily 9:00am – 5:00pm – except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

On Bedford Stuyvesant
Wilhelmina Rhodes Kelly’s Bedford Stuyvesant, one of the newest additions to Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series, details through wonderful vintage images, personal interviews, and snippets of lost-history-recaptured, the evolution of this great Central Brooklyn neighborhood.   A third generation Brooklynite, Kelly resided in Bedford Stuyvesant throughout her pre-teen years before moving to Crown Heights.  She spent the 1960’s and 1970’s travelling often back to the neighborhood she loved to visit her paternal grandparents. It was in researching her family history that the true depth of the neighborhood was revealed, moving her to write the book.  She hopes “this small text will prompt a greater appreciation of the historic (area) and perhaps provoke deeper exploration of its noteworthy past.”   For us, Kelly’s work is anything but small; it is a treasure, a gift for all who have ever called Bedford-Stuyvesant home.  Ms. Kelly visited libraries and historical societies, conducted interviews, collected oral histories, contacted former residents, researched a variety of local organizations and read through reams of newspapers to discover gemstones in the neighborhood’s history and culture. She touches on the architecture and on-going development of Bedford-Stuyvesant to underscore the area’s uniqueness. “So much of the early history and architecture of the original township of Bedford has vanished over the years, from its Dutch pre-Revolutionary housing and windmills, to its multitude of streams, soaring hills and spectacular views,” she says.  Kelly’s book not only documents the Brooklyn of centuries ago, including events that transpired there, it also provides, in her words, “lasting acknowledgement of the multi-ethnic contributions of each succeeding generation of Bedford residents, which included American Indian, Dutch, African American, Asians and more. A Board member of the African Atlantic Genealogical Society of Freeport, LI and a member of the Weeksville Heritage Center of Brooklyn, Kelly also has written an account of her maternal family which she has researched back 12 generations.
Kelly’s Bedford Stuyvesant is a great companion piece to the now classic work by Bed-Stuy native Bruce McInnes, Glory in a Snapshot: A Photographic Look at Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Glory in our Gardens
Glorious is certainly a most fitting description of the recent brainstorming meeting of the Brooklyn Queens Land Trust hosted by Executive Director Agnes Greene at the Hattie Carthan Magnolia Tree Earth Center. Called and attended by BQLT Board Members and garden and nature lovers, the session was alive from beginning to end with idea gems for turning on young people, toddlers and teens, to nature.  Our Time Press will explore some of these recommendations after the group meets again in January to finalize a proposal for educational institutions and funders.

on School Progress Reports
(City Hall, NY) – Parents, students and school administrators were joined by City Council Member Albert Vann, New York State Regent Dr. Adelaide Sanford, Dr. Lester Young and community leaders at a gathering at City Hall today to recognize the exemplary achievement of Bedford Academy High School students on the New York City Public School Progress Reports. 
On November 5, Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein released the first-ever progress reports with each school in the City receiving a letter grade – A, B, C, D, or F – based on the academic achievement and progress of students as well as the results of surveys taken by parents, students, and teachers last spring.   Bedford Academy received an A marking with outstanding results, being one of only two schools in the City achieving a score greater than 100.   
Council Member Albert Vann and members of the City Council including Speaker Christine Quinn, presented Principal George Leonard with a proclamation during the ceremonial portion of the City Council’s Stated Meeting to recognize the hard work and continued academic excellence achieved by Bedford Academy in preparing students for the future. 
The Bedford Academy was founded in 2003 with a vision to provide students with a small learning environment designed to promote rigorous academic achievement by maintaining small class sizes where the teacher to student ratio is 1:20.  Since its inception, Bedford Academy has had a 90 percent-plus passing rate on all New York State Regents exams, as well as 90 percent-plus graduation and attendance rates.     With such success Bedford Academy has become regarded, as one of the best high schools in the City.
Principal George Leonard said, “These results reflect the impact that our school has had on the low achiever. Most students with this profile are usually regarded as the invisible student. At Bedford Academy these students are highly regarded and treated with as much attention and respect as our high achievers and highly motivated students. Schools are finally being evaluated based on how they motivate low achievers.”
Council Member Vann was extremely pleased by the school’s high marks and recommended that the school be honored by the City Council.  He said, “I am ecstatic at this demonstration of excellence on behalf of the Bedford Academy family, students, teachers, supervisors, administrators, and especially the principal, Mr. George Leonard.  To be able to take average students and inspire and motivate them to make progress to surpass the performance of schools that require entrance examinations is worthy of praise and celebration.”
New York State Regent Dr. Adelaide Sanford who attended the day’s recognition ceremony, stated, “It would be prudent if in our quest for a quality education an analysis of successful principals and staff could be made in order to document the procedures and attitudes that combine to promote every child’s potential.  Bedford Academy under the leadership of Mr. Leonard and his staff has once again put to rest any question about our children’s capacity and the ability of strong leadership to fulfill the promise of our ancestors.” 
John Rappaport, Executive Director of the Bedford Stuyvesant YMCA said, “On behalf of our CEO and President, Jack Lund, I am thrilled to offer our congratulations to the students and staff of Bedford Academy.  They deserve so much recognition, and it is our pleasure to partner with them on our YMCA campus to deliver outstanding programming to the youth of Bedford Stuyvesant.”

on School Progress Reports
(City Hall, NY) – Parents, students and school administrators were joined by City Council Member Albert Vann, New York State Regent Dr. Adelaide Sanford, Dr. Lester Young and community leaders at a gathering at City Hall today to recognize the exemplary achievement of Bedford Academy High School students on the New York City Public School Progress Reports. 
On November 5, Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein released the first-ever progress reports with each school in the City receiving a letter grade – A, B, C, D, or F – based on the academic achievement and progress of students as well as the results of surveys taken by parents, students, and teachers last spring.   Bedford Academy received an A marking with outstanding results, being one of only two schools in the City achieving a score greater than 100.   
Council Member Albert Vann and members of the City Council including Speaker Christine Quinn, presented Principal George Leonard with a proclamation during the ceremonial portion of the City Council’s Stated Meeting to recognize the hard work and continued academic excellence achieved by Bedford Academy in preparing students for the future. 
The Bedford Academy was founded in 2003 with a vision to provide students with a small learning environment designed to promote rigorous academic achievement by maintaining small class sizes where the teacher to student ratio is 1:20.  Since its inception, Bedford Academy has had a 90 percent-plus passing rate on all New York State Regents exams, as well as 90 percent-plus graduation and attendance rates.     With such success Bedford Academy has become regarded, as one of the best high schools in the City.
Principal George Leonard said, “These results reflect the impact that our school has had on the low achiever. Most students with this profile are usually regarded as the invisible student. At Bedford Academy these students are highly regarded and treated with as much attention and respect as our high achievers and highly motivated students. Schools are finally being evaluated based on how they motivate low achievers.”
Council Member Vann was extremely pleased by the school’s high marks and recommended that the school be honored by the City Council.  He said, “I am ecstatic at this demonstration of excellence on behalf of the Bedford Academy family, students, teachers, supervisors, administrators, and especially the principal, Mr. George Leonard.  To be able to take average students and inspire and motivate them to make progress to surpass the performance of schools that require entrance examinations is worthy of praise and celebration.”
New York State Regent Dr. Adelaide Sanford who attended the day’s recognition ceremony, stated, “It would be prudent if in our quest for a quality education an analysis of successful principals and staff could be made in order to document the procedures and attitudes that combine to promote every child’s potential.  Bedford Academy under the leadership of Mr. Leonard and his staff has once again put to rest any question about our children’s capacity and the ability of strong leadership to fulfill the promise of our ancestors.” 
John Rappaport, Executive Director of the Bedford Stuyvesant YMCA said, “On behalf of our CEO and President, Jack Lund, I am thrilled to offer our congratulations to the students and staff of Bedford Academy.  They deserve so much recognition, and it is our pleasure to partner with them on our YMCA campus to deliver outstanding programming to the youth of Bedford Stuyvesant.”