A Prescription for Failure

Martin L. King, Jr. Elementary School

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

by Evelyn Winn-Bowden

Excerpt

The 2005-2006 school term marked ten (10) years of academic failure yet this school did not have a specified reading program nor did it have a reaching coach.

Students can show up at school, answer the roll and fail by themselves.   They don't need teachers to help them fail. This theme lingers on my mind as I examine historic information about Martin L. King, Jr. Elementary School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  

During the six-year period from 1995-2000 the students at Martin L. King, Jr. Elementary School failed.  In the 2001-2002 academic year all grades passed with a grade of "C" but returned to total failure in 2002-2003.   Why weren't the children learning?  They were not given sufficient opportunity to learn.

Despite seven (7) years of failure the children continued to be taught by a high percentage of teacher identified by the state as not highly qualified.  In 2003-2004 37.50% of the teachers were not highly qualified, this number increased to 72.73% in 2004-2005.

There was a lack of trained teachers in the Alabama Reading, Mathematics, Science and Technology initiatives.  The 2005-2006 school term marked ten (10) years of academic failure yet the school did not have neither a specified reading program nor a reading coach.   There was a lack of focus on math and no intervention programs for math.  The principal expressed the need for teachers to become better prepared to teach the children.

Over the years parents have been blamed for the schools failure when the fact is the Tuscaloosa City School System and the Alabama Department of Education never provided the school with the basic elements it needed to succeed.