From 2005
From the Florida Times Union, By TONYAA WEATHERSBEE
When it comes to fixing education in Northwest Jacksonville, the ironies don't stop.
In 1965, Raines -- people in the community proudly called it by its full name, William Marion Raines -- opened as the black model high school. Its first principal, Andrew Robinson, had students boasting that they were ichibon, the Japanese word for No. 1.
Such pride -- and the academic achievement that it fostered -- overshadowed one odious reason behind Raines' creation; it was also built to house black students who might otherwise try to enroll in what was then an all-white Ribault High School. But it didn't matter. The community was thrilled to have a new high school -- and a place for young black people to prepare to pursue their dreams in a world that was too accustomed to seeing them at the back of the bus rather than at the top of the class.
Then in 1980, the ironies started.
Robinson -- then interim president at the University of North Florida -- became the mastermind behind the creation of another Northwest Jacksonville model school. He helped the Duval County School Board develop the plan for what is now Stanton College Preparatory School. Since that time, the academic magnet has attracted students from throughout the city, including the neighborhoods surrounding Raines and Ribault. It achieved academic excellence and desegregation in one fell swoop.
Now it's 2005.
Stanton is still racially integrated. It is still a model school. In the meantime, Paxon High School also became Paxon School for Advanced Studies. It is a top school.
Not so for Raines and Ribault.
The schools are mostly black. In contrast to Robinson's day, Raines is failing. The former black model school is now billed as "A Model School for Reform."
And like Raines, Ribault is failing. Failed by the promises and expectations of desegregation, and failed, in part, by the social and economic deterioration of much of the surrounding community.
Given those ironies, I can understand why some people would be skeptical of a plan to fix Raines and Ribault by yet another magnetization scheme. Right now the School Board wants to house an Advanced International Certificate of Education program at Raines -- a program similar to one at Mandarin High -- that will allow students to receive college credit for passing certain examinations. And the board plans to put what would be the county's third International Baccalaureate program at Ribault -- an offering that would make the school competitive with Stanton and Paxon.
The goal of the plan, which was lobbied for by board members Betty Burney and Brenda Priestly Jackson, is to save Raines and Ribault by drawing neighborhood students who transferred from the schools. They hope that the programs -- which will be offered along with the schools' regular curriculum -- will also bring an infusion of high-achieving students whose Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores will catapult the schools off the state's "F" lists.
Again, history makes skepticism come easy. Yet, I believe the plan deserves a chance. And not just for the sake of bolstering the schools' FCAT scores.
I believe the plan deserves a chance because, if it is successful, it can ultimately change the learning culture at Raines and Ribault. And that's what's needed.
One of the reasons I believe that students are flaming out at those schools is because many of them have internalized expectations of failure. A number of them see academic success as something that is so impossible that they have created an alternative reality for themselves; one in which doing poorly in school is normal and doing well -- or extremely well -- in school is freakish. But if they see more and more students among them who are achieving, that reality will, at some point, change.
"When I think about Raines -- I was there from 1971 to 1974 -- I think about how we had a principal who constantly told us that we were No. 1," Burney told me. "And we were. That was in our spirit. But the kids at Raines now see an 'F' school, a failing school. That's what's in their spirits now, and we have to begin to counterract that now. ... We have to make Raines do what it was intended to do all along."
Already, Burney said, the response of parents in the area has been tremendous -- and that's a good thing. They'll be needed. The Jacksonville branch of the NAACP is also working feverishly to push the programs as well.
Now it's true that many of the complex problems that are fueling the failures at Raines and Ribault, problems such as family instability and poverty, can't be cured by magnet programs. But right now, there's too much at stake for people to sit idly -- and allow those schools to become casualities not only of historical ironies but of enduring inaction and indifference.
At the very least, the plan is worth a try.
http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/050205/new_18616192.shtml
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