Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

By Eric Adams
The Ocean Hill – Stansbury connection
On 12/21/04 at the Ocean Hill Housing Development,  the ghost of tragedies past reared its ugly head.  A uniformed police officer, while conducting a vertical had a part of the finger on his right hand shot off.  Initial reports indicated that the perpetrator of this act was the ‘usual suspect’, a black man.  Police seized the complex as they systematically searched for this gun toting black man.  They even had a description:  Male Black, black ski mask, black coat, armed with a gun.  The Police Commissioner himself supplied the story and description to the press.  The officer’s version as related by Commissioner Kelly was that during the course of a vertical patrol, the officer encountered a man with a gun and pursued him resulting in an abbreviated gun battle. 
Commissioner Kelly’s version indicated that the officer’s fingertip was shot off during the exchange of gunfire.  Mayor Bloomberg after visiting the injured Police Officer told the waiting press that he had “.thanked him for the risk he took in protecting his fellow New Yorkers.”  All appeared normal until the facts unfolded.
 On 12/22/04 apparently the evidence directly contradicted the initial version.  Somehow in the span of less than 24 hours, what initially appeared to be another heroic sacrifice by New York’s Finest had transformed into a bold faced lie.  A lie that had caused countless innocent citizens pain and intrusion only familiar to those who have lived under the oppression of a police state.  In this police state long established guaranteed rights and protections are discarded for the public good.  The apparent reality is that all investigative roads led to a single shooter, the officer himself.  Police Commissioner Kelly is the Fred Astaire of  policing.  He simply changed his footwork according to the tune of the day.  Commissioner Kelly called his loyal dictation takers who masquerade as journalists and gave them the updated version of the Ocean Hill shooting.  According to Commissioner Kelly it is now apparent that the Police Officer, observed the ‘usual suspect’ with a gun and while attempting to switch his gun from one hand to another he discharged his weapon shooting off his fingertip.  Even more double talk followed.  Commissioner Kelly stated “We are not searching for that individual although the officer believed him to have a weapon.” (New York Post 12/22/04.)  For those trying to follow along it goes like this: either the Police Officer lied to the investigators and the investigators passed that lie to the Police Commissioner, or the Police Commissioner lied to the public and the Mayor or everybody’s lying and hoping that you fall for it.  Anyway you slice it swift departmental charges and termination are in order.  
Lets look deeper into this incident and remember the Timothy Stansbury death at the Louis Armstrong Houses a mere 11 months ago.  Both involved vertical patrols conducted by a Police Officer who not only had his gun un-holstered and in the ready position, but had his finger on the trigger.  Even more, both officers had the gun pointed in an unsafe direction when THEY pulled the trigger.  The initial versions were full of inconsistencies and outright distortions.  In the Stansbury shooting, it is accepted that he was on the roof, however the fact is that the Police Officer was on the roof entering the building when Mr. Stansbury was shot.  Mr. Stansbury and his friends were on the landing inside of the building.  The Ocean Hill shooting presupposed that there was an actual armed perpetrator who engaged in a shootout with a uniformed Police
Officer.  Obviously ballistics evidence and common sense have ruled out that possibility.  After the Stansbury shooting, many praised Commissioner Kelly for his quick response to the family’s pain.  Commissioner Kelly promised a review of procedures and tactics when conducting vertical patrols.  Commissioner Kelly even appointed Deputy Commissioner James Fyfe to empanel other NYPD executives to come up with a policy on vertical patrol.  You remember Deputy Commissioner Fyfe from the Diallo shooting where he testified on behalf of the Police
Officers involved and indicated that they acted within NYPD guidelines.  He even went a little further by testifying that the officers had an official obligation to pursue the unarmed African immigrant.  Some 11 months after the Stansbury shooting we are still waiting on Deputy Commissioner Fyfe’s comprehensive report and recommendations.  I suspect that we’ll get one in the upcoming weeks as a result of the more recent shooting.  Both incidents are supported by the common misconception that Blacks are dangerous by nature.  The only difference
in the Ocean Hill shooting and that of Timothy Stansbury is a fingertip.
The Ocean Hill shooting is the same as Susan Smith in South Carolina, Charles Stewart in Boston and the death of Anthony Baez in the Bronx.  All 3 cases attempted to offer up a Black man as the perpetrator.  Susan Smith drowned her 2 children and alleged that they were abducted by a Black man.  Charles Stewart murdered his pregnant wife and said a Black man did it.  The Police Officers in the strangulation death of Anthony Baez testified that they observed a
mysterious, still unidentified Black hand around Mr. Baez neck in spite of Police Officer Livoti’s violent demented attack on him.  In Ocean Hill an entire community became suspect after the initial account of the shooting incident.  How many apartments were forcibly entered by the police, how many people were forcibly stopped by the police, how many children were subjected to yet another humiliating  encounter with the police.  These questions point out the residual
effect of unchecked authority based on lies and manipulated perception.  All is not well in Ocean Hill if anybody can say anything that leads to the constitution being tossed aside for a night.
 Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly have some explaining to do if there goal is positive community relations.  There should be an immediate town hall meeting in Ocean Hill to fully explain the facts as they are today.  How many warrantless searches were conducted?  How many stop and frisk reports were prepared?  How many arrests occurred during the investigation period?  How many summonses were issued?  What will happen to the Police Officer who exposed his colleagues to unreasonable risk?  What action will occur to rectify the public perception of the residents?  What policy and procedure will be changed and when? 
 There is no direct accountability because the community doesn’t demand it.  While we continue with our episodic response to police misconduct and abuse, Phyllis Clayburne still mourns the death of her innocent son, Timothy Stansbury.  She too is waiting on the promises made by the Mayor and Police Commissioner some 11 months later.  January 24th is the one year anniversary of the death of Timothy Stansbury.Let his death be not in vain.  Co-authored by Marquez Claxton

to Assist Survivors
On September 6th, Bedford- Stuyvesant churches and  thecommunity came together to provide some relief for the victims of the government=s failure in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.  On this day, Sharonnie Perry and Assemblywoman Annette Robinson brought together Central Brooklyn clergy, community residents and elected officials in action that was typical of what  was taking place across Bedford- Stuyvesant and the country as people scrambled to provide whatever they could for people who had been suddenly bereft of all they had.
One survivor, just arrived from Louisiana, addressed the crowd assembled beneath the tent at Restoration Plaza.
AMy name is Veronica Ogden from the 13th Ward, New Orleans, Louisiana, uptown from the Tree Garden district.  Been here three days now with my immediate family: my 15-year-old daughter, my son, my sister and her husband.  We have other family members divided and spread across the country in different states seeking a new life until we can go home to our beautiful life back home.
We originally evacuated from the New Orleans with clothing for three days because we thought we would be returning home after the hurricane. 
We went to Grambling, Louisiana where a woman who took us in just like an angel.  A blessing. But we decided we could not stay there and live on her forever.  We went to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, organizations set up to help people in our position, but we did not receive  one penny of help from either one of those places.  The only thing they offered us was to stay in a shelter.  A big open space with cots where they were herding people in there like animals.  Luckily, I did not find myself in that position. 
We got a bus ticket to New York to stay with my family here.  We still have family and close friends in New Orleans.  This has been a shock to our system.  Thank you so much.@
 Ms. Perry noted that of the money given to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, 50-60% goes to their Aadministrative costs.@   In contrast to that, the money collected this day went to the Central Brooklyn Gulf Coast Relief  Fund to be sent to the Full Gospel Fellowship Baptist Churches and the Knights of Peter Claver who could directly help those most in need. 
To make a contribution, make checks payable to: Central Brooklyn Gulf Coast Relief Fund  and mail to Assemblywoman Annette Robinson, 1360 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216.

This column received assurance that it does keep the readership “wired for success”.  The December 2003 column discussed RFIDs.  These are microchips placed in merchandise.  The RFIDs are a monitoring system to counteract employee pilfering and shoplifting.  Trouble is that they are not deactivated so if they are implanted on clothes, a person can be tracked after leaving the store.  During WNBC-TV’s August 25, 2004 11 o’clock news broadcast, the science feature was about RFIDs.  Would you say that WNBC-TV is eight months late with that story?
Every August, TV viewers are entertained by a commercial involving an ecstatic father skipping as he pushes a shopping cart.  The background music sings, “It’s a most wonderful time of the year.”  Is it Christmas?  No; it’s time to prepare the kids for school.  While Dad skips through the store’s aisle, the young children glumly follow behind.  Why are the children glum about returning to school?  One would believe that school isn’t fun.  If you ask some New York students, they may tell you that they don’t see a connection between the subjects and life.
Education is meant to prepare youth for a meaningful life.  Education can be a stimulating experience.  The right tools and enthusiastic, encouraging teachers are needed.  Teachers come in all categories: parents, older siblings, relatives, friends and the licensed teacher.  Focusing on the tools, there is educational software that responds to a young mind’s need for interaction and progressive challenges.  Major educational software companies include Creative Wonders, The Learning Company, Atari, Topics Entertainment, Encore Software, Global Software Publishing, and Softkey Inc.  These companies produce software to meet the learning needs of toddlers through high school seniors.
Though phonics is not taught in New York City public schools parents may supplement education with The Learning Co.’s Achieve! Phonics, Reading & Writing Grades 1 – 3.  Encore Software offers a series of educational tools to make school a snap through all its stages.  Try their Elementary Advantage , Middle School Advantage  and High School Advantage .  The Elementary Advantage contains modules for fractions, spelling, Spanish, Earth Science, beginning typing, Social Studies, basic math and critical-thinking.  Topics Entertainment has a similar suite of tools called Educator’s Choice Middle School and Educator’s Choice High School.  These CDs contain modules for algebra, geometry, trigonometry, precalculus and calculus.  If your child is still turned off by math and science, connect these disciplines to their heritage.  A great documentary for a personal or school library is Cosmic Africa.  This movie looks at the life of South African Astrophysicist, Thebe Medupe’s, trek through ten African countries to show Africa’s ancient study of astronomy and other sciences (log onto www.southafrica.info for details).  To sharpen critical-thinking try The Learning Co.’s Cluefinders series or SoftKey’s Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego? or Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?  Topics Entertainment offers SNAP! PSAT/SAT to prepare high school students to ace college admission tests.  Tried and true programs include Atari’s Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble and Microsoft’s World Atlas and Encarta Encyclopedia.
The software isn’t expensive.  It can add up when a parent purchases many titles at once.  Websites to purchase the software are the individual software maker’s Website, Amazon, CNET and Barnes & Noble.  A shopper has the choice of purchasing the latest edition or an older one.  Remember parents: don’t just throw your kids into the computer room with dozens of CD-ROMs.  Be in the room together.  A child learns by hearing, doing and seeing.  When a child sees his parent enjoying something, he is more inclined to want to do the same thing.  In fact, when Dad gets stomped but keeps at it, the child learns the value of failing and persevering.
pardHomework Assistance Sites
Another learning tool is online homework assistance.  Some Websites are interactive whereby the user receives a response moments after submitting a question.  Other sites may require more time to respond.  The Websites tend to use certified teachers.  A few sites to investigate include homeworktutoring.com, make-the-grade.com, Help-Your-Child-Learn.org, escore.com, pasesetter.com and the cityofnewyorkcity.com/tutoring/index.html.  This column does not seek to socialize children to be overly dependent on technology.  Rather, it is balancing high-tech with high-touch.  Families need to access technology to facilitate living-not to substitute for a life.
pardScholarship Websites
Hopefully, the effective use of technology together with a concerned and involved parent produces an academic powerhouse.  Your genius wants to go to Fisk, Howard, Morehouse, Harvard or Dartmouth.  Do you have the money?  Not to worry; there’s money available to cover college expenses.  It is estimated that there are 600,000 scholarship programs.  One need only research to find one.  No time to research?  There is scholarship research assistance.  These are search engines that specialize in identifying scholarships or grants.  A scholarship seeker logs onto a site and registers with the site, which includes providing information to customize a search for your demographics and field of interest.  Fastweb.monster.com is a popular assistant as are scholarships.brokescholar.com, scholarshipexperts.com, YourDegreeHere.com, military.com, and wiredscholar.com.

Hunter College Biotechnology Curriculum

Interested in a career in Biotechnology?  Contact Prof. Patricia Rockwell, at Hunter College’s Biology Department, about the Accelerated BA/MA program.  The program features a Biotechnology workshop in recombinant DNA, laboratory internships, and a seminar series featuring talks by industry leaders.  The first graduating class was in 2003.  Include yourself in the class of 2009.
ED FOR SUCCESS

By Theodore M. Shaw and Elise C. Boddie
There has been much controversy over New York City’s hastily devised third grade Testing and Retention Policy.  Under this policy, the decision to retain a Third Grade student is dictated primarily by the child’s scores on two citywide tests, English Language Arts and Mathematics.  Supporters of the policy bill it as “the end of social promotion,” pointing to the systemic failure of the City’s schools to prepare students and arguing that there are harmful consequences to promoting children who are struggling academically.  Those who oppose the policy are dismissed as being out of touch with what is happening in the City’s malfunctioning schools.  But, in reality, the choice between “social promotion” and retention is a false one:  neither is the key to reforming the educational system.  Students would fare far better if resources were invested in, among other things, early-grade intervention and smaller class sizes.
We agree that schools are failing our kids, but the question is what to do about it.  If social promotion is a problem plaguing the City’s educational system, retention promises only to make matters worse.  This may sound counterintuitive:  how can it make sense to promote a child who fails a test?  But thirty years of educational research and, indeed, the City’s own failed experience with a similar retention program over a decade ago conclusively demonstrates that retention is fundamentally bad for kids.  According to educational experts, retention, even retention in the early grades, is a significant predictor of whether a child will drop out of school even after accounting for socioeconomic factors.  Although retention may lead to short-term increases in test scores because students are a year older when taking the tests for the second time, experts uniformly agree that retention does not lead to higher achievement over the long term and, in fact, has been shown to depress achievement outcomes at certain grade levels.
There are also very serious problems with deciding to promote or retain a child primarily on the basis of a test score.  Testing experts, and even those who manufacture and market these tests, warn against using them as the sole or primary basis for decisions about a child’s educational future.  A student’s test performance can vary from day to day for reasons that have nothing to do with whether he or she knows the material.  What if he was sick or was simply having an “off” day?  It is sounder educational practice to base the decision to retain on a variety of criteria, including test scores, class work and attendance.  Although there may be circumstances in which an individual child should be held back, this decision should be left to the professional judgment of the teacher and principal and not dictated primarily by a test result for thousands of kids at a time. 
Furthermore, tests that are used to retain students must be validated for that purpose.  Validation ensures that tests actually and reliably measure the skills and knowledge that they purport to measure; that they test material that is being taught in the schools; and that the “cut score” – the passing score on the test – in fact distinguishes a passing student from one who has failed.  Flunking a child based on an invalid test makes about as much sense as firing an auto mechanic for not knowing how to cook.
Finally, the harsh reality is that the burden of large-scale retention policies that are based on high-stakes tests disproportionately falls on African-American and Latino children in some of the City’s worst schools.  At the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, we know that we must demand excellence from all of our children.  We know that our children can excel if given the opportunity and the resources to learn.  We also know that retaining thousands of students who languish in dilapidated schools with outdated books and materials and few supportive services is unfair and has punitive consequences down the road.  In these circumstances, if anyone should be held accountable, it should be the schools and not these eight year olds.
Tests can be useful diagnostic tools for identifying struggling students, but they should not be relied upon as sole or primary determinants of a child’s educational future.  The bottom line is that schools should be in the business of educating students to teach them the beauty of learning.  Tests are a means to this end, not an end in themselves; and large-scale, high-stakes test driven retention policies, although they may be politically expedient, do more harm than good and are damaging to children.
Theodore M. Shaw is Director-Counsel and President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF).  Elise C. Boddie is LDF’s Director of Education.

By Theodore M. Shaw and Elise C. Boddie
There has been much controversy over New York City’s hastily devised third grade testing and retention policy.  Under this policy, the decision to retain a third grade student is dictated primarily by the child’s scores on two citywide tests, English Language Arts and Mathematics.  Supporters of the policy bill it as “the end of social promotion,” pointing to the systemic failure of the City’s schools to prepare students and arguing that there are harmful consequences to promoting children who are struggling academically.  Those who oppose the policy are dismissed as being out of touch with what is happening in the City’s malfunctioning schools.  But, in reality, the choice between “social promotion” and retention is a false one:  neither is the key to reforming the educational system.  Students would fare far better if resources were invested in, among other things, early grade intervention and smaller class sizes.
We agree that schools are failing our kids, but the question is what to do about it.  If social promotion is a problem plaguing the City’s educational system, retention promises only to make matters worse.  This may sound counterintuitive:  how can it make sense to promote a child who fails a test?  But thirty years of educational research and, indeed, the City’s own failed experience with a similar retention program over a decade ago conclusively demonstrate that retention is fundamentally bad for kids.  According to educational experts, retention, even retention in the early grades, is a significant predictor of whether a child will drop out of school even after accounting for socioeconomic factors.  Although retention may lead to short-term increases in test scores because students are a year older when taking the tests for the second time, experts uniformly agree that retention does not lead to higher achievement over the long term and, in fact, has been shown to depress achievement outcomes at certain grade levels.
There are also very serious problems with deciding to promote or retain a child primarily on the basis of a test score.  Testing experts, and even those who manufacture and market these tests, warn against using them as the sole or primary basis for decisions about a child’s educational future.  A student’s test performance can vary from day to day for reasons that have nothing to do with whether he knows the material.  What if he was sick or was simply having an “off” day?  It is sounder educational practice to base the decision to retain on a variety of criteria, including test scores, class work, and attendance.  Although there may be circumstances in which an individual child should be held back, this decision should be left to the professional judgment of the teacher and principal and not dictated primarily by a test result for thousands of kids at a time. 
Furthermore, tests that are used to retain students must be validated for that purpose.  Validation ensures that tests actually and reliably measure the skills and knowledge that they purport to measure; that they test material that is being taught in the schools; and that the “cut score” – the passing score on the test – in fact distinguishes a passing student from one who has failed.  Flunking a child based on an invalid test makes about as much sense as firing an auto mechanic for not knowing how to cook.
Finally, the harsh reality is that the burden of large-scale retention policies that are based on high stakes tests disproportionately falls on African-American and Latino children in some of the City’s worst schools.  At the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, we know that we must demand excellence from all of our children.  We know that our children can excel if given the opportunity and the resources to learn.  We also know that retaining thousands of students who languish in dilapidated schools with outdated books and materials and few supportive services is unfair and has punitive consequences down the road.  In these circumstances, if anyone should be held accountable, it should be the schools and not these eight year olds.
Tests can be useful diagnostic tools for identifying struggling students, but they should not be relied upon as sole or primary determinants of a child’s educational future.  The bottom line is that schools should be in the business of educating students to teach them the beauty of learning.  Tests are a means to this end, not an end in themselves; and large-scale, high-stakes test driven retention policies, although they may be politically expedient, do more harm than good and are damaging to children.
Theodore M. Shaw is Director-Counsel and President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF).  Elise C. Boddie is LDF’s Director of Education.