The booming voice of Kalamu Ya Salaam drowned out the sound of Corcoran Commons last Thursday night as the renowned poet performed his Hurricane Katrina-inspired pieces. Born and raised in New Orleans, Salaam witnessed the dramatic changes occurring in New Orleans post-Katrina. Most of those changes were centered on the state's effort to improve the city's inadequate public school system.
In the "Weathering the Challenges of Education: The Crises in New Orleans Public School," the second of a three-part symposium series sponsored by the Lynch School of Education, Salaam addressed the problems of the state's effort in governing the education system. Policies made in effect to the regions impacted by Hurricane Katrina were deficient because they were not treating students of color equally in the school system.
"Katrina had a destructive impact upon New Orleans. That does not mean that the government can start from scratch and take new approaches towards the school system that is viewed as broken, corrupted, and scrapped," Salaam said. "New Orleans is virtually President Bush's testing ground for his No Child Left Behind Act, in which the measuring rod of a school system's success is based on its test scores."
Bush's No Child Left Behind Act was enacted in 2001 to improve the public school system in America. The bill stated that a school will only be funded if it can demonstrate that its quality of teachers, test scores, and research programs meet the standards. The No Child Left Behind Act, however, has been criticized for its failure to determine the actual success of a school.
"Pre-Katrina New Orleans schools were the best in the state of Louisiana if you only measure the achievement of white students. New Orleans schools are also the worst if you measure achievement of the black students. New Orleans school system is overwhelmingly black. How can one hope to repair the school system?" Salaam said. "One-third of our children are at risk of failing grades. Do I need to explain the race of these children?"
2008 Woodie Awards
