WNYC Airs Documentary on CHS Achievement Gap this Weekend

When radio journalist Nancy Solomon moved to South Orange with her partner and their young son in 2001, she thought she was living in a community that had a racially diverse school district. But as Solomon later learned, it wasn’t exactly the case at Columbia High School, where a majority of black students were in the lower-level classes, while white students tended to be in more advanced classes. The surprising thing was that there were middle-class black students who had good grades, but for some reason were relegated to lower-level classes and couldn’t advance beyond that.

This experience is something that Solomon, a journalist for 25 years who freelances for National Public Radio, talks about in her latest documentary “Minding the Gap: Why Good Schools Are Failing Black Students.” The program, which will air this weekend on WNYC-AM 820, features interviews with CHS students and administrators to figure out why this disparity—which has its share of complex causes—exists.

Solomon says her introduction to the topic came from attending a discussion by the South Orange-Maplewood Community Coalition on Race six years ago. “I was just so surprised to hear what was going on in our schools,” she says, “and to hear such different results between black students and white students. I was intrigued by it.”

And since she has a son in the school system, Solomon saw what was happening first-hand. “I just felt that this was a really important issue for our community to tackle and to do better on."

Originally, Solomon didn’t want to focus on South Orange and Maplewood for her piece because she felt it was too close to home, so she looked at other schools. But the more she researched, the more she came back to her own community. “This school district is the perfect place to look at this issue because of the diversity not just in terms of race,” she says, “but the diversity in terms of socio-economic status.”

Several of Columbia’s students and administrators welcomed her in talking about the issue for “Mind the Gap”; it’s a subject that's discussed constantly at the school and even integrated into the curriculum, says Solomon. “The students don’t bat an eyelash when you ask them about it. There’s no secret. All you have to do is poke your head in any leveled classroom, and the achievement gap is there for all to see.”

One thing that stood out to Solomon was the difference between white and black students’ attitudes when it came to their parents’ involvement in their education. “If a white kid is placed at a lower level,” she says, “their parents are in the principal’s office immediately to complain and advocate [to] get their kid moved up.”

But when Solomon interviewed a black student on the same topic, she got a different reaction. “[The student] said, ‘If I ask my mom to help me, what about everybody else in Level 3 [one of the lower level classes] who are facing the same thing?’ I have to do this on my own. I have to prove to the school that I’m a good enough student.’ That blew me away.”

So what are some of the causes? Solomon cites the issue of class when children are entering kindergarten and elementary school. When it comes to students entering middle school,  Solomon says, “Student identity, race identity, relationships between black kids and white teachers, the curriculum—all of those things start to come into play.”

Solomon hopes this documentary can lead to further dialogue about the achievement gap. “I think we as a community in South Orange and Maplewood have to have a much more honest discussion,” she says. “For me the best thing that could come out of this locally would be that this would be a tool for this discussion.” 

“Mind the Gap: Why Good Schools Are Failing Black Students” can be heard on WNYC-AM 820 on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 8 p.m. You can also listen to or download the documentary on http://nancycsolomon.com/mindthegap/download.html.