THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 17, 1995 TAG: 9502170079
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: LIFE IN THE PASSING LANE
The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star has been following the paths
of four seniors in South Hampton Roads during their senior year in
high school. This installment details Robbie Scott's push to excel
throughout his academic career.
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 140 lines
``LONELY.''
That's the way Nansemond River High School senior Robbie Scott describes much of his schooling.
It happened gradually, he said. Year after year, the number of black male buddies in his advanced classes diminished like Fourth of July sparklers that glow for a few precious seconds and then disappear. The last time he recalls other black males being in any of his most-demanding classes was about three years ago. And he's not even sure about that.
Robbie, ever a competitor, is now the only black male in the four toughest classes on his schedule: advanced-placement chemistry, honors English, calculus and physics. He's not one to sit around and dwell on it.
But he says the picture in many higher-level courses might look more representative if black male peers put extra effort into their schoolwork. One of the best ways to tear down the stereotype of black males as underachievers, he said, is for them to fight back with intellect.
From the time Robbie was old enough to start figuring out the world around him, his parents put a premium on learning. And he responded. Perfect attendance certificates, honor roll recognitions and invitations to join academic clubs became a matter of course.
Robbie himself wanted to be a winner. ``I figure if you have to go to school, you may as well do your best,'' he said. ``There's no point to just going to school and doing nothing. That doesn't make sense.''
Academics should always be a student's top priority, Robbie said.
Being ``the only one'' hadn't fazed him until a black female classmate mentioned it to him during a 10th-grade honors English class.
``She was like, `You know, you're the only black male in here.' And I was like, `Yeah, I never really paid much attention to it.' Then, as I went to more and more of my classes, I started noticing it. Last year, it just became a regular thing.''
The school district is trying to change that.
At the urging of School Board member and former superintendent Mack Benn Jr., who is black, the district recently organized a 30-person task force to investigate the paucity of minority students in advanced, college-track courses - or at least on the path leading to them.
Such classes are designed to prepare students for college-level work. Employers also are known to size up graduates based on the academic weight they pulled.
The goal of the task force is to find not only ways to increase the number of minority students in higher-level classes but also the total number of students taking them, said Milton R. Liverman, the district's testing coordinator and a task force member.
Robbie, who aspires to be a chemist or chemical engineer, is a student representative on the task force. He is also a representative of success in a school district that reflects the national trend of racial imbalance in academic achievement.
Beginning with the earliest grades, Suffolk's statistics paint a dismal picture. An in-house analysis of 1993-94 standardized test results showed that, in each grade from 1 through 12, 63 percent to 84 percent of minority students ranked on the bottom rung in math and reading. Almost all were black.
At the other end, 15 percent to 35 percent of minorities scored high enough to be in what officials call the fourth quartile - the top rung.
That school year, Robbie was among the 23 percent of students in Suffolk's gifted classes who were black - out of a student population that was nearly 60 percent black overall. But while he may see other black kids in his advanced courses, they more than likely will be female. Robbie has defied the pressures that, by high school, send many young black males down different paths.
In some cases, smart black kids don't want to stand out because doing so can bring ridicule from less-gifted black peers.
``It takes a strong person'' to deal with the pressure to be like everyone else, said Nansemond River junior Kristi Mizelle, who is black. Mizelle, who holds her own ground academically with a perfect 4.0 grade point average, is in Robbie's chemistry class.
Black students, she said, must resist peer pressure. Otherwise, ``you'll just fade into the masses.''
The pattern in Suffolk is in no way unique.
In neighboring Chesapeake, for example, 22.5 percent of white students were in classes for gifted students compared with 11.5 percent of black students, according to 1992 records.
And, not surprisingly, the trend continues beyond high school. A recently released federal study found that between 1981 and 1991, the number of bachelor's degrees earned by women and men increased in all racial and ethnic categories except for black men.
Some Hampton Roads school districts have designated administrators to come up with ways to improve academic performance among black students, or make sure they're not being unfairly pushed toward watered-down, less-challenging courses.
Experts say disparities won't go away overnight because root causes run deep - touching on everything from a student's home and school lives and the value family members place on education to teachers who have trouble spotting talent in minority children.
The issue is one that's long been a major concern for Isaac Williams, Nansemond River's guidance department director and Robbie's counselor.
``It's a societal problem with origins that go way back,'' Williams said. But that's no excuse for not dealing with the problem today, he added.
Like Robbie, more black students ``have to start being challenged and made to consider themselves as people who have the ability to . . . challenge themselves and be in those courses,'' he said. ``Anything that affects one part of our society affects society at large.''
Robbie said he never felt the need to act differently just to make others feel comfortable. And he said he never felt pressured to represent all young black males just because he happened to be the only one in some instances.
He hangs out with his buddies at lunch, and he used to see them a lot when he played in the marching band. He still gets a chance to hook up with some of them in his two other classes, basic technical drawing and government.
But when it's time for the meat of his day - the core academic subjects - they split up like two sets of tire tracks.
Although he's not sure how to increase the numbers of blacks in higher-level classes, he has some ideas: Educators and parents - especially parents - must start encouraging them to take school seriously early in life. Teachers, he said, also must expect more from them.
Still, it all goes back to the individual, he said.
``They really have to want to do it. They have to want to work hard and do something with themselves.''
Even so, he later said, a stellar academic record isn't always enough for young black males to erase the color line. Sometimes, no matter what you do, ``people will just pay attention to your race,'' he said.
He's striving, anyway, to floor those types with his mind. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Robbie Scott in kindergarten at Elephant's Fork Elementary School in
Suffolk...
...and in his senior picture of Nansemond River High.
Robbie earned this certificate in Hampton University's summer
science program.
by CNB