Joliet school recognizes academic success of black male students

JOLIET — Daquan Williams was given Wednesday at school a red-striped tie to wear, representing his success in a program that helps black male students achieve academic excellence.

Williams, a Washington Junior High School and Academy seventh grader, was one of about a dozen students in the same grade who were given a tie as part of the The Scholars Group program.

Principal Michael Latting helped him put on the tie for the first time.

“I was excited but I was a little bit nervous,” Williams said of the program, which was created in the 2013-14 school year. “But I thought over the year, it worked out well.”

Wednesday was The Scholars Group tie and blazer ceremony. Students in grades six to eight were recognized by their parents and Joliet Public Schools District 86 officials for their success in the program. Seventh graders received the ties while eighth graders got red blazers.

Superintendent Charles Coleman, Mayor Bob O’Dekirk and City Council member Terry Morris also attended the ceremony.

At the end of the 2014-15 school year, all students in The Scholars Group saw their grades improve and 65 to 75 percent made the honor roll one or more times during the year. Since the program started, membership has grown from 15 to 40 students.

Latting mentioned the old saying, “it takes a village to raise a child,” during the ceremony.

“At this school, we are the village,” he said.

The Scholars Group was created to combat poor test results from black male students at the school, especially in reading. The program is not a social club but an academically-driven group.

Teacher and Scholar Adviser Wil Seegars said under the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, black male students ranked the lowest at the school.

He said research shows students who leave the fourth grade struggling to have a solid foundation in reading are in danger of falling victim to the “school-to-prison” pipeline.

The phenomenon is a national trend where underprivileged children are funneled out of public schools and into juvenile and criminal justice systems instead of receiving additional educational and counseling services, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

“We realized if we did not begin to do some things to reverse it, we might put ourselves in a situation of possibly losing our young men,” Seegars said.

Latting said the school takes pride in educating its male students.

“These young men are the people that one of these days will be sitting in these chairs right here,” Latting said, pointing to where Coleman, O’Dekirk and Morris were seated. “You see, they come to us as sixth graders and they’ll all tell you they came in as boys. But when they leave Washington, they will be young men.”