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The 100 Black Men of Syracuse, a nonprofit advocacy group, held an education forum in the South Side Innovation Center at 2610 S. Salina St. on Saturday.

Around 15 community members attended the forum, which discussed the quality of education children of color received in the Syracuse City School District.

SCSD consistently performed below the state average on New York state’s English Language Arts assessment, said Reggie Stephens, the vice president of the Higher Learning Network. In 2019, only 18% of all the city school district students scored at or above proficient level on the state’s ELA assessment, Stephens said.

The assessments were adopted by the state’s Board of Regents in 2010 to more accurately reflect students’ progress toward college and career readiness, according to the New York State Education Department’s website.

Stephens conducted a presentation on Syracuse City School District’s assessment data during the forum. In 2021, out of 1,389 eighth grade students enrolled in Syracuse City School District, 791 chose to take the ELA assessment, according to NYSED data.

Among the 406 Black children who took the test, only 52, or 13% of the total, were proficient. No Black or Hispanic/Latino students in the eighth grade were proficient in the math assessment this year, per NYSED data.

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Although the high school graduation rate in Syracuse City School District has been constantly rising in the past few years, members of the 100 Black Men of Syracuse worry that children in the community won’t be able to translate that to college.

“When you talk about investing in children, when you talk about the education of children, it’s got to be about more than the college you see,” said Vincent Love, the vice president of finance of 100 Black Men of Syracuse. “Our children are struggling … we need to do something to help them.”

Osupa T-Davis, a Syracuse community member and attendee at the forum, told The Daily Orange that although she doesn’t currently have a child in her household who’s attending school in Syracuse, she’s nervous that children in the community are receiving low-quality education.

“I don’t think that they will be ready for college,” T-Davis said. “After seeing if they’re not good in math and reading and the literacy rates are so low, then they won’t be able to hold jobs … and how do you excel in the world?”

Bishop Leonard Stephens Sr. of the International House of God Church said that providing Black students with Black role models is crucial to their success.

“It’s very imperative that you see someone successful who looks like you, who can relate to you,” Stephens Sr. said.

Additionally, Love announced at the forum that the group wants to found a charter school that is “established, maintained and operated by people of color” in the community where they can offer additional services such as tutoring and after-school programs.

Love recognized that charter schools in the country are a controversial topic. Despite widespread critiques, Love said charter schools are more closely scrutinized by the government and society. Charter schools won’t be allowed to stay open if their students perform the same way as shown in the Syracuse City School District’s data, and they are mandated to accept students from different demographics, he said.

“This vision has been in the works for about three years now,” Love told The D.O. “Our role is going to be to provide support to the students and parents of the school with all of the programming we now run.”

Love also said during the forum that 100 Black Men of Syracuse must submit a letter of intent to the Board Regents and if they receive approval, the group will submit an official application and be granted an interview. Love anticipates it will be several years before the proposed school is open.

“All of our services that we already provide to the community will be accessible to all of the students and all the parents of the school,” Love told The D.O. “We will be constantly reinforcing their educational journey outside of school hours.”

T-Davis said she fully supports the charter school plan.

“I believe that children who see people who look like them, they (will) feel more comfortable,” T-Davis said. “If you love them … they will know that this is the community that I came from, and they can tell stories about this. So I do believe that it’s a mutual love that is going to happen.”

Published on February 6, 2022 at 9:49 pm

Contact Katie: ksmcclel@syr.edu | @katie_mcclellan