In recent years, the NAACP and the National Urban League (NUL) have been returning to their origins by placing a greater emphasis on education, teachers, administrators, students, parents and government officials to close the gap between Black and White achievement.

Spearheaded by NUL President Hugh Price, Urban League affiliates have been particularly successful at organizing programs that honor academic achievement in the same manner that high school athletic banquets honor gifted athletes. The NAACP recently held its fifth biennial Daisy Bates Education Summit in Atlanta. Bates, a former field director for the NAACP in Arkansas, led the “Little Rock Nine” past a mob to successfully desegregate Central High School in 1957.

NAACP President Kweisi Mfume announced at the Atlanta conference that just as it has sued major corporations that discriminate against African-Americans, the organization will now file complaints against states that refuse to help close the gap between Black and White student accomplishments.

“Twenty-eight governors have pledged to join the NAACP and our partners in the efforts to reduce racial disparity and close the achievement gap,” Mfume said. “However, 22 states failed to respond by the May 20, 2002 deadline. The NAACP will file Title VI complaints with the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department against those states that did not submit an equity in education plan.”

Each state has been asked to submit a plan that will help reduce the racial disparity gap by 50 percent over the next five years. The NAACP is looking at five key areas: testing, graduation rates, suspensions, placement in special education and the lack of access to gifted and talented programs.

States not complying by the May 10 deadline are: Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming.

John H. Jackson, NAACP national director of education, says the first complaints will be filed against Florida, Louisiana and Ohio. In Florida, for example, African-Americans make up 25 percent of public school students, yet are 44 percent of those suspended, 35 percent of those expelled and 48 percent of students earning GEDs rather than traditional diplomas.

According to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office on Civil Rights, only 7 percent of Blacks are enrolled in advanced placement mathematics and 6 percent in advanced science.

The NAACP in its “Call For Action in Education,” has announced a goal of reducing racial disparity in the nation’s public schools by 50 percent over the next five years.

Among the recommendations made in the 42-page special report are:

- Track and publicly report on the disparate distribution of school resources;

- Federal, state and local educational agencies should aggressively recruit highly-qualified, certified teachers for high-poverty schools and provide them with multicultural teacher training, professional development, mentors and effective retention incentives;

- Increase the number of early childhood programs available to people of color and the poor;
-Curb tracking programs and redouble efforts to place students of color in advanced placement programs and classes for the gifted and talented;

- Reduce class size, especially in urban schools;

- Narrow the digital divide by at least 50 percent over the next five years;

- Declare a moratorium on high-stakes testing of children until all states can guarantee that all students have an equal opportunity to learn the tested curriculum;

- Provide more detailed information on racial and ethnic academic achievement;

- Increase efforts to involve more parents;

- Develop effective strategies for intervening before a students is labeled “mentally retarded” or placed in special education classes;

- Move away from overly harsh “zero tolerance” policies that disproportionately impact students of color;

- Give magnet schools priority over the establishment of charter schools;

- Oppose measures that would impose one-year structure immersion programs for students needing language assistance;

- Increase funds to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and institutions that serve Native Americans and Hispanics;

- Encourage colleges to target people of color for enrollment and retention, maintain affirmative action programs, increase need-based grants, and increase the number of Black doctoral candidates.

At his press conference in Atlanta, Mfume said, “The NAACP reaffirms its commitment to continue the legacy of Daisy Bates by working to ensure that all students, regardless of race, gender or ethnicity, have equal access to quality education.”

If George W. Bush really wants to be known as the “Education President,” he should quickly embrace the educational strategies outlined by the NAACP and the National Urban League. That’s the best way to leave no child behind.