Patricia Cook-Ferguson serves as head of the Baltimore County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which supports requiring students to pass the High School Assessments to graduate.
The graduation requirement, which has ignited a heated debate in Maryland, is to take effect for the first time this school year. The requirement has divided Marylanders, and the NAACP — some branches of the historic civil rights group support using it, while many others have railed against it.
Why is the Baltimore County branch of the NAACP in favor of requiring students to pass the High School Assessments to graduate?
Our children, it seems like they’re being victimized. We have a lot of children who graduate and get high school diplomas that shouldn’t. But at a certain age, these children walk out, they go into college, they have to take remedial classes. They are not proficient in certain areas.
Do you think minorities are passed through the system more than other students?
Yes, I do. It affects minorities, not just blacks, more than others.
What would you say to other branches of the NAACP that want to delay using the test as a graduation requirement?
We know that everybody is not test-oriented. Some children clam up on tests. As long as there was an alternative [such as the Bridge program], we said we were for it, but the alternative had to be rigorous. It couldn’t just be something that they could easily do. Several branches in Maryland want to wait another year. My question is, if you wait another year, what are you putting in place of it? And who is going to be working on it? And no one is saying anything. They just want to wait another year. I’m tired of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It’s time to hold that baby, and save that baby.
