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GREENSBORO - Folks scowled, sighed and shook their heads. The numbers were not pretty.

School board members - seated in front of a crowd of about 100 - learned Monday that Guilford County Schools has not made any true progress in narrowing the achievement gap between black and white male students.

"Politically, we've closed the gap," said Gongshu Zhang, the district's chief accountability and research officer. "Educationally and academically that gap has never been closed."

That's because the federal No Child Left Behind Act measures success by how many students pass their state exams - a threshold that can change, Zhang said.

Student advocates are asking if the numbers matter. In fact, some educators blamed standardized tests for ignoring student differences, and isolating and discouraging black male students from learning.

They asked for a transformation in the way the district operates, including better preparing teachers to work with a diverse population.

"Somehow, standardized tests have become the bureaucratic pill to fix deep-rooted problems in education, but this is like taking a daily dose of aspirin to fix cancer," said Muktha Jost, an associate professor of education at N.C. A&T.

Jost and several others analyzed the racial, historical and cultural factors contributing to the group's underachievement.

Board member Deena Hayes requested the study after several black Greensboro ministers asked at a meeting what the district was doing to address the higher dropout and suspension rates among those students.

Monday's reports confirmed that black males are more likely than white males to come from low-income families, have parents without a college degree, and have learning disabilities. Schools with large minority populations have higher concentrations of inexperienced educators and teacher turnover.

On the other hand, the report found that black males were more likely to be enrolled in prekindergarten classes and magnet schools. And students who stayed in the district from grades three through 12 fared better on state exams than those who did not.

The Rev. Cardes Brown, pastor of New Light Missionary Baptist Church, said he was not surprised by report's data.

"I'm hoping that through this, since they are dealing with this now, that this will be more than rhetoric," Brown said.

The board plans to meet later this summer to discuss specific recommendations.

Member Amos Quick said he wants the board to consider implementing same-gender schools and requesting the new superintendent to follow black males' progress.

Hayes and Nancy Routh said they don't want the district to continue "throwing" money or programs at the problem. "We're not going to pass this mess down to another generation of kids," Hayes said.

Contact Morgan Josey Glover at 373-7078 or morgan.josey@news-record.com