Three school superintendents from Kitsap County met with parents, teachers, and local black community leaders on Monday, March 10.

The meeting was at Mt. Zion Church in Bremerton. Superintendents Catherine Davidson of CKSD, Elizabeth Hyde of BSD and Gene Medina of NKSD attended. Topics included grade gaps between whites and students of color, and the need to get parents involved with their children’s education.

Several members of the black community said there was some urgency to the meeting because local, state and national testing will take place from March through May.

“Hopefully this meeting will be a fruitful one. We want to hear your input,“ Mt. Zion pastor Sam Rachel said as the meeting opened. He then turned the meeting over to emcee J.D. Sweet.

“Our main focus tonight is to increase the involvement of African American parents, and parents of color generally, with their children and teachers in school,” said Sweet, a black CK High School social studies teacher.

Hyde, talked about BSD’s “disaggregation” of students, on test results only, to study minority performance.

Disaggregation is the process of separating whites and their test scores from the scores of blacks, Native Americans, Asians and other ethnic minorities.

“It’s become federal law for schools to do this in every state,” Hyde said.

She explained that aggregated results can be deceiving.

“A white student may score higher, while a minority student scores the same. The average would lead you to believe everyone was doing better — which would not be a true picture,” she said.

Programs helping minorities at BSD include:

l “We have a very strong pre-school program,” she said. “When kids go on to kindergarten, they’re ready.”

l “We’re focusing on getting all kids to reach the third-grade level of learning by the end of the third grade,” she said.

l “We can tutor kids before and after school — and during lunch hour — and not just during summer school,” she said.

Hyde said blacks were “consistently underachieving on reading and math.”

Attendee Michael Nkosi, a Bremerton attorney, asked “What can we do?” Others asked “Why is this the case?” and “Will this ever change?”

“Last spring we had 142 kids having trouble with their grades and we sent out letters to parents for a meeting — but only 10 parents showed up,” Hyde said

Among other tests, the state-mandated Washington Assessment of Student Learning test (WASL) will be administered to students in the fourth, seventh, and 10th-grades in April and May. Eighth-graders will take the science portion of the test.

State legislators want the test to be mandatory for graduation — eventually. Now it’s used as a guide to compare districts within the state.

“Over the last 100 years or so, haven’t black kids always scored lower? What you’re telling us is not news,” Nkosi said to Hyde. Nkosi claimed tests are “culturally biased” in favor of whites, not persons of color.

Hyde disagreed.

“We’re not targeting any racial group” in the testing, she said, emphasizing the real problem was black parents not getting involved with their children’s education.

“Given the history of the gap” in grades, said Nkosi, “do you think getting parents involved will make the gap disappear?”

“No, that won’t do it all,” Hyde said.

“Are you saying we’ll always be a little behind?” he said.

“No,” Hyde said. “It’s just that minority students need more time. They can learn.”

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