By Margie M. Palmer

Dr. Emma Turner, Vice President of the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District Board of Education, has been elected to the position of Chair of the National Black Council (NBC) of National School Boards Association (NSBA).

During her two-year term of office, Dr. Turner will continue to be an educational advocate for providing a quality education all students, including African-American youth, across the nation.

“The current state of education for African-Americans needs improvement, I guess is what would be the closest I can get to a snappy response,” she said. “There is a huge cultural difference between African-American kids and Caucasian kids and how they learn. African-American kids are forced into an education system that was not made for us at all.”

The educational system in America was set up for affluent students, mostly males, she said, adding that while there have been some changes that have taken place, educational institutions can still do more to accommodate African-American youth.

One such change relates to the credentialing process for aspiring teachers.

“I think that teachers should need to participate in cultural competency classes before they get their credentials because this [requirement] currently doesn’t exist,” Dr. Turner said. “We should be teaching our teachers a history and understanding of different cultures and teaching people how to appreciate each other, and to appreciate whatever they bring to the table instead of trying to make them over into what you want them to be. People need to appreciate people for who they are and where they came from in history.”

Another area she intends to focus on is reducing expulsions and suspensions for African-American males.

“We’ve been doing really well on this in the state of California and we want to push this practice across the nation,” she said. “When these kids are suspended or expelled they just go home and play on their phones, play video games or get into trouble. We want to keep them in the classroom, even if they’re having trouble, because we’re doing them a favor by giving them time off.”

The expansion of literacy programs also needs to be looked at, she said, adding that if children don’t learn how to read by a certain grade they are less likely to finish high school.

They’re also are more likely to have chronic absences and suspensions.

“We need to continue looking at researched best practices and see how we can replicate those. We need to look at strategies to increase learning in African-American kids, who as a group, along with other minority groups, are more likely to have literacy problems.”

Although Dr. Turner plans to be a staunch advocate for African-American students during her term in office, she also understands that the needs of all children, not just one particular group, should be the top priority.

“We can’t just focus on one group to the exclusion of others; we don’t want to see one group shoot up while the others are left behind,” she said. “All K-12 students need our help, even the gifted ones. We can’t forget about them to focus on others because we don’t want to leave them behind. We need to keep the big picture in mind because we can’t stop working for all kids or we’ll still have a problem.”

—Margie M. Palmer is a San Diego-based freelance writer who has been racking up bylines for a myriad of publications for the past 10 years. Reach her at [email protected].