I was happy to read that Washington Post article on test scores. (“Test Scores at Odds With Rising High School Grades” by Amit R. Paley, Friday, February 23, 2007). I have meant to say some words about my observations on  K-12 Educational issues in the Black and Latino communities for a while. I want to speak as a first generation Haitian-American  (immigrant) educator. As a Black person, I know Black people have the same issues, but so far African Americans, Haitians and other West Indians and Africans from the continent of Africa have not yet engaged in mutual dialogue as people of African descent living in the diaspora. If we have tried to mask this issue, the nation wide tension that Sen.

Obama’s race to the White House  brought had crystallized this divisive attitude.

K-12 education and solutions for young Haitian people’s welfare are among the least discussed topics in Haitian discussion lines and other general e-mails I receive as well Haitian radios, TV shows and churches. As someone familiar with the Haitian church on a national level, conversation with teachers, educators, social service agencies, parents, pscychologists, and other professionals on finding solutions to educate our Haitian youth is not an agenda item and focus either.

Though I am involved in several communites , my area of training and concerns is education and the young.

As an immigrant, I also notice our focus is mainly on immigration laws,bills, and unjust actions such as raids and deportations which is very legitimate.

However, I believe aforementionned Black and Lation adult groups and immigrants need to prepare a generation that will continue to do the advocacy work we are doing, and do it better.  I am tired of being portrayed as poor immigrant.

Many perceive Latino and Black immigrants as poor. When we look at the educational gap of Blacks and Latinos, I believe the next generation will be worse off, poorer than this one if we don’t focus on education.  To my knowledge, Haitian and  many subsaraha African communities are not addressing that gap at all.

We have a significant number of students who had never been to school because of violent conflicts in their home countries. Yet, these students are placed in classrooms according to their age, not their academic proficiency and abilities. This is a serious issue that requires more conversation.

I  had approached many leaders on issues of youth and education to no avail.

I have read about the Latino community  (Iniciativa) having conferences on the achievement gap. An announcement was sent recently about a meeting in Boston with community leaders , Parent  organization(s) and ACORN , but I could not attend.

I would like to hear how other individuals or groups are addressing the concerns of Blacks’ and Latinos’ K-12 education.  I notice from my side of ‘town,” Blacks and Latinos are not collectively providing enrichment programs and/ or taking a leadership position in teaching their young.  While we are fighting for immigration rights, we need to make sure that our children are well educated and will not be fighting the same cause(s).

Nowadays a lot of us who had followed the steps of the 1960’s generation and had been advocating since the l980's are getting older. However, I am not seeing us passing the torch to a new generation of young individuals. It ‘s still the same people doing the same thing.

I hope the well needed dialogue on making sure that we are providing the resources so our children could excel and do better than us will continue.

Nekita