What King Would See Today

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The next day I was in the District's Tenleytown neighborhood in the vicinity of Wilson Senior High School. King would find the academic trajectory of black and white students distressing.

In the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System used in 2006-07 to test Wilson students in reading, 94 percent of white students scored at or above "proficient," compared with only 49 percent of black students.

In math, 94 percent of white students scored at or above proficient; only 35 percent of black students reached that level.

Those dismal results are replicated throughout the D.C. school system and in urban schools across the country.

Test scores are only part of the problem.

"Intelligence plus character -- that is the goal of true education," King said.

Some today also fail the character test.

Wilson is not a "battleground" as it was depicted in the headline of last week's column. But neither is it the "Riverdale High" found in Archie Andrews comics.

From September through February, Wilson recorded six assaults, eight fights, four robberies, 10 weapons violations, two abuse cases and one drug case, according to a report provided by D.C. public school administration this week. In March, there were 13 arrests in one week alone.

At one level, the turmoil stems from school system assignment policies that sent a large influx of new students to Wilson, several of whom were far behind academically and were socially unprepared to function in a setting without structure and support.

Their ranks contained the hall-walkers, the disrespectful and insecure kids, full of resentment, spoiling for a fight.

It's not just at Wilson.