Black students and families need more support — and they need it now. An unprecedented coalition dives in with a new LAUSD task force. [laschoolreport.com]

An unprecedented coalition of community members, educators, parents, and students at LA Unified have convened a new task force to urgently address why African-American youth continue to have the lowest test scores and why black students and families continue to feel ignored by the education system.

Black students persist in having LA Unified’s highest rates of dropouts and suspensions. They are most likely to be identified as needing special education services, and they are least likely to be identified as gifted, district administrators reported at the task force’s first meeting.

“This group has been the most underserved, and we need to be audacious when we take on this challenge,” said Robert Whitman, special projects director of the district’s Access, Equity, and Acceleration Department, who convened the new Advisory for African American Students task force last month.

[For more on this story by Mike Szymanski, go to http://laschoolreport.com/blac...ew-lausd-task-force/]

Photo: A new LAUSD task force has formed to help close achievement gaps for black youths. (Courtesy: LAUSD)