Demise of African American Academy provides a challenge and an opportunity

OF five academic programs recommended by Seattle Schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson for closure, the case for ending the African American Academy is strongest.

The Afrocentric school was created in 1991 to boost minority student achievement, particularly among black students. The credible rationale was for the Academy to do for its children, what single-sex schools have done to improve learning for girls and boys. But the intent never lived up to the promise.

Students improved and excelled but never enough to build a trend. Upticks in test scores have been inconsistent. The architectural jewel of a building can hold far more students than choose to attend, despite its all-city enrollment status that guarantees transportation to attend. This expense, nearly $700 annually per student, furthers the case to recast the academy as a neighborhood school.

The district does not get a pass on investing in multicultural education. Diversity is key in a quality education.

There is still much the district should, and can, do to help Latino, Asian, Native American and black children. But these programs must emerge from a pattern of isolation and uneven funding and quality.

Examples predate the Academy. The American Indian School was moved four times in 11 years before finding a permanent home. A program for Latino students, Projecto Saber, was a perennial victim of tight budgets but appears stable at a middle school and two high schools. Ideally, every school ought to have a plan, if not a program, for engaging all students.

Instilling a sense of ethnic pride is the job of parents. But all schools can provide diverse libraries and instructors knowledgeable about many cultures and points of view.

The academy's demise offers a new challenge. Ricki Malone, the respected principal brought out of retirement to run the school, once said memorably, "any child can learn if they are in an environment where the adults love and care for them."

It would be a sad statement on all of us if black children needed to be in an all-black school to feel loved and cared for. A responsibility borne by the academy should shift now to every school.