Education officials: Students can
learn despite tough challenges

By By Georgia E. Frye / staff writer
July 8, 2004
A children's advocate from Washington, D.C., said Wednesday that disadvantaged students can succeed in school if they taught by a good teacher and given a little extra help.
Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust, told local community, business and school officials that she believes eliminating lower-level high school classes will improve student achievement.
Haycock told the group of more than 100 people that high school students fail classes less often when they are placed in higher level courses and given extra help and encouragement.
She said she believes the best way to close the achievement gap between students from low-income families and students from high-income families is to make sure that each student has an above average teacher.
Summer meetings
Haycock's appearance in Meridian was one of a series of traveling meetings called Progress+. The meetings will be taking place all over the state this summer.
The Education Trust was established in 1990, and is designed to speak up for the rights of young people, especially those who are poor or members of minority groups. The Trust also provides hands-on assistance to urban school districts and universities that want to work together to improve student achievement.
The meeting was sponsored by the Mississippi Power Company, the Mississippi Economic Council, Leadership Mississippi, Public Education Forum of Mississippi and Mississippi Scholars.
State Superintendent of Education Henry Johnson also spoke at the meeting.
He said that he is pleased with the progress that Mississippi's educational system has made in the past few years. Johnson became Mississippi's top educator in 2002.
He said there are things, big and small, communities across Mississippi can do to improve the quality of kindergarten through 12th-grade education.
Local response
But some local school officials, however, do not agree with Haycock and Johnson's theory about putting all students in upper-level courses.
Robert Markham, deputy superintendent for Meridian Public Schools, said after the meeting that he doesn't believe that all students could succeed in harder classes.
But Meridian High School Principal R.D. Harris said the Meridian School District has already eliminated remedial classes at MHS and he believes it is changing the way the students think about themselves and their work.
Lauderdale County School Superintendent David Little said he and his administrators have discussed the possibility of eliminating remedial classes in all county schools next year.