Oakland Policy on Ebonics
OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
SYNOPSIS OF THE ADOPTED POLICY ON STANDARD AMERICAN
ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
On December 18, 1996 the Oakland Unified School District Board of Education
approved a policy affirming Standard American English language development
for all students. This policy mandates that effective instructional
strategies must be utilized in order to ensure that every child has the
opportunity to achieve English language proficiency. Language development
for African American students, who comprise 53% of the students in the
Oakland schools, will be enhanced with the recognition and understanding of
the language structures unique to African American students. This language
has been studied for several decades and is variously referred to as Ebonics
(literally "Black sounds"), or "Pan-African Communication Behaviors," or
"African Language Systems."
This policy is based on the work of a broad-based Task Force, convened six
months ago to review the district-wide achievement data (see Appendix 1) and
to make recommendations regarding effective practices that would enhance the
opportunity for all students to successfully achieve the standards of the
core curriculum (see Appendix 2). The data show low levels of student
performance, disproportionately high representation in special education,
and under-representation in Advanced Placement courses, and in the Gifted
and Talented Education Program. The recommendations (see Appendix 3), based
on academic research, focus on the unique language stature of African
American pupils, the direct connection of English language proficiency to
student achievement, and the education of parents and the community to
support academic achievement (see bibliography in Appendix 4).
One of the programs recommended is the Standard English Proficiency Program
(S.E.P.), a State of California model program, which promotes
English-language development for African-American students. The S.E.P.
training enables teachers and administrators to respect and acknowledge the
history, culture, and language that the African American student brings to
school. Recently a "Superliteracy" component was added to ensure the
development of high levels of reading, writing, and speaking skills. The
policy further requires strengthening pre-school education and parent and
community participation in the educational processes of the District.
The recommendations of the Task Force establish English language proficiency
as the foundation for competency in all academic areas. Passage of this
policy is a clear demonstration that the Oakland Unified School District is
committed to take significant actions to turn around the educational
attainment of its African-American students.
Oakland's Standard: English
The Board of Education adopted a policy on teaching English, not Ebonics.
Unfortunately, because of misconceptions in the resulting press stories, the
actions of the Board of Education have been publically misunderstood.
*Oakland School District has decided to teach Ebonics in place of English.
*The District is trying to classify Ebonics (i.e. "Black English,")
speaking students as Bilingual
*OUSD is only attempting to pilfer federal and state funds
*OUSD is trying to create a system of perverse incentives that reward
failure and lower standards
*Oakland is condoning the use of Slang
*Oakland has gone too far
*Ebonics further segregates an already racially divided school district
*There is no statistical evidence to support this approach or that this
approach will improve student achievement
Nothing could be further from the truth.
1. The Oakland Unified School District is not replacing the teaching of
Standard American English with any other language.
The District is not teaching Ebonics.
The District emphasizes teaching Standard American English and has set a
high standard of excellence for all its students.
2. The Oakland Unified School District is providing its teachers and parents
with the tools to address the diverse languages the children bring into the
3. The District's objective is to build on the language skills that
African-American students bring to the classroom without devaluing students
and their diversity.
We have directly connected English language proficiency to student achievement.
4. The term "genetically-based" is synonomous with genesis. In the
clause, "African Language Systems are genetically based and not a dialect
of English," the term "genetically based" is used according to the standard
dictionary definition of "has origins in." It is not used to refer to human
APPENDIX 1: FINDINGS
*53% of the total Oakland Unified School District's enrollment of 51,706
is African American.
*71% of the students enrolled in Special Education were African American.
*37% of the students enrolled in GATE classes were African American.
*64% of students retained were African American.
*67% of students classified as truant were African American.
*71% of African American males attend school on a regular basis.
*19% of the 12th grade African American students did not graduate.
*80% of all suspended students were African American.
*1.80 average GPA of African American students represents the lowest GPA
in the district.
APPENDIX 2: CORE CURRICULUM STANDARDS AT BENCHMARK GRADE
Grade 1: All students will read and perform mathematics at grade level.
Grade 3: All students will read at grade level, have mastery of
mathematical operations, and compose written works on a computer.
Grade 5: All students will meet or exceed the fifth grade standards for
the core curriculum in Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and
Grade 8: All students will be able to read and engage with complex and
diverse literature, conduct a research project and write a
scholarly paper on that research, perform mathematics at a level
required to enroll in Algebra, organize and participate in
community service and social events, and utilize technology as a
tool for learning and work.
Grade 10: All students will successfully complete college required
coursework in English, Math, and Science, and will enroll in a
career academy or program.
Grade 12: All students will successfully complete courses required for
entrance into a college or university, meet the requirements for
an entry level career position, and develop and defend a senior
APPENDIX 3: OVERVIEW OF RECOMMENDATIONS
The recommendations, based on identified conditions and outcomes, are
aligned with the Content Standards adopted by OUSD, pre-kindergarten -12th
It is the consensus of the African American Task Force that the African
American students' language needs have not been fully addressed.
This report addresses the language needs of African American students as
one of the nine major areas of recommendations to be implemented by OUSD.
African American students shall develop English language proficiency as the foundation for their achievements in all core competency areas.
All existing programs shall be implemented fully to enhance the achievements of African American students.
The Task Force on the Education of African American Students shall be retained in order to assist OUSD in developing workplans and implementation strategies.
Financial commitments shall be made to implement the Task Force
on the Education of African American Students recommendations during the current fiscal year.
The district's identification and assessment criteria for GATE and Special Education Programs shall be reviewed.
The community shall be mobilized to partner with OUSD to achieve recommended outcomes.
OUSD shall develop a policy which requires all categorical and general program funding to be used to ensure access to and mastery of the core curriculum.
All resources of the district shall be applied and used to ensure
that these recommendations be implemented.
OUSD shall develop recruitment procedures that facilitate the hiring of administrators, teachers, counselors and support staff that reflect the culture of African American students composition of the student population.
"Black children are the proxy for what ails American education in general.
And so, as we fashion solutions which help Black children, we fashion
solutions which help all children." The Honorable Augustus F. Hawkins
APPENDIX 4: BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alleyne, M. C. (1971). Linguistic Continuity of Africa in the Caribbean.
In H. J. Richards (Ed), Topics in Afro-American Studies (pp. 119
- 134). New York: Black Academy Press.
Chomsky, Noam (1972). Language and Mind. New York: Harcourt Brace,<br>
California Language Arts Framework (1987). California Department of
De Franz, Anita (1994). Coming to Cultural and Linguistic Awakening: An
African and African American Educational Vision. In Jean
Frederickson (Ed) Reclaiming Our Voices: Bilingual Education
Critical Pedagogy and Praxis. Ontario (CA): California
Association for Bilingual Education.
Delpit, Lisa (1988). "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in
Educating Other People's Children." Harvard Education Review, Vol.
58, No. 3.
Dillard, J. L. (1973). Black English: Its History and Usage in the United
States. New York: Vintage Books.
Fromkin, Victoria and Robert Rodman (1978). An Introduction to Language.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Greenberg. J. H. (1966). Essays in Linguistics. Chicago: University of
Hale-Benson, Janice (1994). Unbank the Fire. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
Hilliard, Asa (1987). Testing African American Students: A Question of
Validity. A Special Issue of The Negro Education Review.
Hilliard, Asa (1995). The Maroon Within Us. Publishers Group West.
Hoover, Mary (1990). Successful Black Schools. Oakland California: NABRLE
O'Grady, W., M. Dobrovolsky, and M. Arnoff (1993). Contemporary
Linguistics: An Introduction. New York: St. Martins Press.
Ogbu, John (1978) Minority Education and Caste. New York: Academic Press.
Smith, Ernie A. (1994). The Historical Development of African American
Language. Los Angeles: Watts College Press.
Smitherman, Geneva (1994). Black Talk. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Turner, Lorenzo D. (1974). Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect. Ann Arbor:
The University of Michigan Press.
Vass, Winifred K. (1979). The Bantu Speaking Heritage of the United
States. Los Angeles: Center for Afro-American Studies, University
of California, Los Angeles.
Welmers, W. E. (1973). African Language Structures. Berkeley: University
of California Press.
Williams, Robert L. (1975). Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks.
St. Louis: Institute of Black Studies.