Montgomery Parents Rally for Black Students

Group Says School System Treats, Teaches Minority Children Differently

A group of black parents in Montgomery County yesterday resumed its campaign to pressure the school system to take more aggressive steps toward narrowing the achievement gaps between black and Hispanic students and their white and Asian counterparts.

In a event dubbed the "Let My People Go" rally, parents and children gathered to pray and sing African American freedom songs before the school board's regularly scheduled meeting at the system's headquarters in Rockville.

"We're here concerned that our children are treated differently and educated differently," said Tom Broadwater, volunteer coordinator for African American Parents of Montgomery County.

The group is an outgrowth of the black parent group African American Parents of Magnet School Applicants, which was formed in January to protest the dearth of blacks and Hispanics selected to enroll in the system's middle school magnet programs. Group members retooled themselves in April and broadened their mission to look at how black students are faring overall in Montgomery public schools.

School system officials maintain that they are working diligently to close the achievement gaps among all races and ethnicities and point to growth in reading and math scores among minorities at several elementary schools.

Officials also cite statistics that show steady gains in the number of blacks and Hispanics identified as gifted and talented, a process that starts in the second grade. In 2002, for example, 20.5 percent of black second-graders were identified as gifted and talented; in 2004, 24.4 percent were.

Still, last year black students made up about 11.5 percent of all those labeled gifted and talented in the second grade, while whites made up 57.1 percent. Among second-graders systemwide, 21.6 percent were black and 43.3 percent were white.

The group also alleges that the system mistreats black and Hispanic students. One parent at last night's rally, Jacqueline Bromfield, said her son, now a second-grader, was suspended for sexual harassment when he was 6. She called his treatment excessive and unfair.