Following a status report showing a stark disparity in achievement — by race  — of students’ performance in Buncombe County and Asheville public schools that was presented Feb. 7 to the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, Asheville Vice Mayor Sandra Kilgore is speaking out on the need to try different possible remedies until a workable solution is found.

Kilgore, who spoke in a telephone interview with the Daily Planet on March 25, readily acknowledged that the “test score disparities show blacks falling behind more” in comparison to their white counterparts.

“The report, which did not include private, charter or home schools, concluded that white students scored 55 percent stronger in math than black students — and 62 percent stronger in reading,” Asheville television station WLOS (News 13) noted on the results.

So does the vice mayor think the problem with worsening test scores for local black students is fixable? the Daily Planet asked. 

“Yes, definitely,” Kilgore responded evenly to the newspaper’s question in the interview.

Regarding the test results, she said, “The only concern I have is that I think it is a reflection that the structures — on how we teach our kids — need to be adjusted to reflect the needs of the students.”

Specifically, the vice mayor asserted, “I think we need to look at the overall process on how we teach the kids because, right now, they have a short attention span — and we need to adjust the training” to take that factor into account.

“We need to reach the students where they are... You can’t reach the kids with ‘cookie-cutter’ procedures,” as has been tried in the past.

After a pause, Kilgore added, “I noticed that reading scores (for black studnets) were very low. Maybe we need to look at finding subjects that interest the kids...  to get them interested in reading.

“The math scores are real low, too... If the math scores are so low, there’s a disconnect in the teaching, somewhere. We need to start revamping the curriculums. These kids do not relate to ‘old school’” approaches to the teaching of math.

Further, she said, “I think we — more or less — have to realize that things are changing so rapidly and that our children are being pulled so rapidly in different directions by social media and other things.”

At that point, the vice mayor reiterated her shock and dismay at the test scores — in both reading and math — by local black public school students, noting, “I can’t understand it.”

Undeterred, she then said, “We have to look at how we’re teaching the curriculum. The kids today are... different. Find out what kids’ interests are. Then put them in training or classes that promote that interest.

“I think what has happened... I think it comes from the structural systemic policies that are in place — and somehow ties their (teachers’) hands on the processes that they use.”

Further, Kilgore said, “I totally agree with” the need for more black volunteers in the schools, when asked in the interview about comments along similar lines by Matthew Bacoate Jr., a black civic activist and Asheville resident.

Among several ideas, Bacoate said in an interview with the Daily Planet in its March 1-14 edition that it would be immensely helpful to have more black volunteers working as tutors and mentors — especially for black students — in the schools.

“But,” the vice mayor added, “unfortunately, a lot of (local) blacks do not have the luxury or time to volunteer,” as they are lower income and juggle several jobs to make ends meet financially, and thereby lack spare time to serve as volunteers.

 â€œIt would be good to get more black — or white — volunteers into the schools,” she said. “We’re talking about some type of stipend” to incentivize black volunteer participation in the effort.

 In concluding, Kilgore said that it would be highly beneficial to place into the schools “people (black volunteers, in particular) with ‘street smarts’ and common sense,” which she termed much-needed qualities that “may help with connecting with the kids. It could be easier for the kids to relate to them,” as “they’re looking at teachers as ‘authority figures.’”