My tradition has been the Clueless Media Person of the Week, but after reading this North County Times article, I think we need a Clueless County Office of Education Person of the Week. I don't have a name, but it would be the person from San Diego County Office of Education who agreed to host the daylong conference on African American student achievement gaps. While I agree that educators need to look at strategies for closing achievement gaps for these students, the solution that came out of this conference leaves a lot of be desired.

According to the keynote speaker, Noma LeMoine, director of the Academic English Mastery and Closing the Achievement Gap branch of the Los Angeles Unified School District, "the bridge for the achievement gap between white and black students lies in the understanding and acceptance of African-American English."

Yep, you guessed, they're talking about Ebonics. Whether we call it Ebonics or African-American English, the issue is the same. According to Ms. LeMoine, Ebonics is the student's second language. She also said Ebonics "has unfairly gotten a bad rap."

I'm sorry. I don't see any more value in promoting Ebonics than I do in bilingual instruction. Both strategies only delay students acquiring the English skills they need to be successful in school and put the students further behind their English-speaking peers. If you look at high-performing environments, where minority students are succeeding, you're not going to hear Ebonics. You're going to hear English. That is the academic language in California. It is the language that students are tested in and the primary language they will need to be successful here. Let's not make excuses, but instead give these students the instruction and extra assistance they need to excel in English.