At recent forums on student assignment, several black high school students complained of being reassigned from the racially diverse Hopewell High to the virtually all-black West Charlotte. They and their families saw it as a sign that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leaders are actively working to segregate schools, a concern picked up by school board members Richard McElrath and Joyce Waddell.
McElrath, a retired teacher who was running for school board when the boundary decisions were made last year, noted that his family lives in the area being switched. No one he knows was told about the possible school swap, he says.
The lingering angst over 2010-11 high school boundaries illustrates some of the challenges in student assignment.
A look at the 2009 boundary map is enough to spark head-scratching in a reasonable person. West Charlotte's zone jutted up toward the north suburbs. That's because the northeastern Vance High got way too big several years ago. CMS carved off part of the Vance zone and reassigned it to West Charlotte.
Meanwhile, the zone for Hopewell High in Huntersville had a "foot" that practically stepped on West Charlotte.
That's how West Charlotte got sucked into the boundary shuffle sparked by a new high school opening in Cornelius, some 17 miles to the north. When CMS officials launched boundary talks in March 2009, with automated phone calls to families, media coverage and contacts with PTSAs and town officials, they made it clear West Charlotte was in the mix.
Yet somehow the news of changing boundaries slipped by a number of people until it was too late. It wasn't just the area moving from Hopewell to West Charlotte that got bushwhacked. Many who live farther north -- including former North Mecklenburg Principal Jimmy Poole, a respected and knowledgeable voice in the area -- were shocked to realize belatedly that the board had voted in June 2009 to draw lines that will dramatically boost the poverty level and eliminate the white majority at North Meck starting this August.
Communication is one challenge. I can attest that CMS publicized the boundary options and held public meetings. I remember writing articles and being surprised that there wasn't more outcry from up north.
But there's a difference between hearing about abstract changes and realizing how those changes will affect your child or your school. As CMS goes through the current round of highly-publicized student assignment talks, complete with multiple public forums, I'm willing to bet there will still be folks showing up in the fall to protest specific changes, saying they had no warning.
Drawing lines is an even bigger challenge. The new high-school boundary map looks more logical. The new Hough High carves off the northern portion of the county, and will open with a mostly white and middle-class student body. West Charlotte has a more compact zone; it's expected to remain mostly black and mostly poor. Students in that northern "jut" that moved from Vance to West Charlotte a few years ago will now go to North Meck (which will serve a strip of north/northeast Charlotte). The kids moving from Hopewell to West Charlotte will be at a school closer to home.
So is everyone happy? Not a chance. As board member Joe White likes to say, "schools close to home" are only desirable if you like the school close to your home. And as members weigh their commitments to nearby schools, diversity and equity, they're going to find a lot of collisions.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Stealth segregation?
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58 comments:
This goes to show that the superintendent and the school board ar enot the only ones to watch. We need to start a drive to release Gorman from his contract and clean out downtown completely. While it is sad there are some good well intended people downtown, the ones (staff) who slip these things through are the despicable educrats who are really the ones who have ruined public education. They hid behind federal unfunded mandates, vague state BOE directives, and social engineers.
It's impossible to segregate blacks when whits make up only 33% of the students.
What ever happens, make sure that the lines drawn in Cotswold have Merchants kids going to MP, afterall once the possibility arose in the fall that his kids might have to go to East if zones where shifted to increase population at East, Merchant led the charge to dismantle the IB Program at MP.
Segregation is the wave of the future in education.
It's already taking place in the bellwether state of Texas.
As Texas grows more "diverse", it also grows more segregated.
Of course, the "minorities" suffer from this because educational studies show that segregated minorities get a worse education.
But that is increasingly their problem to resolve.
Especially since the whites are leaving the areas where the local government can use them to balance the scores.
http://www.edweek.org/rc/articles/2008/10/01/graduation_texas.html
Do they have boundary maps with like ya know..streets and junk?
I'm sure its a lost cause, but I'll point out anyway that there are no segregated schools in CMS, and certainly no one on the BOE or in CMS is trying to create segregated schools. Segregated means set apart, isloated, or divided--whites only, blacks only, or Latino only, schools. Certainly we have schools that are not racially or economically balanced as some would define it, but the use of the term segregated is inflammatory and inaccurate. dj
To see roads and such, you need to go to the actual school map. First go to http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/cmsdepartments/StudentPlacement/Pages/BoundaryMaps.aspx and then click on High Schools tab below the County Wide maps section. Choose the school you want and you will see a map with the previous zone and the new zone.
Face it ... schools will NOT be equal until each school is economically diverse. If the Board does not want to draw the boundary lines so as to make the schools more economically and racially equal, then stop comparing schools and expecting a school that has a high number of at risk students to perform at the same level as those in influential areas -- the students simply do not have the same resources outside of school.
Segregation bad, got it.
So riddle me this. How come kids of color can't succeed (according to some anyway) without white kids in their schools?
Isn't that racist and paternalistic in and of itself to think that a certain race can't help themselves and need whitey to come in to rescue them?
I think Americans of color are a heck of a lot better and stronger than that.
People with money and education simply have more choices than those who don't.
And they are choosing to not be victimized by social engineers who want to use their children.
There are plenty of studies that show how the "poor" kids benefit from being around the "rich".
Any studies on how those "rich" kids suffer by being around the "poor"?
Nah, I didn't think so.
But people still know.
Theoretically, if we shuffle around the 33% of white kids left in CMS and the 51% of poor kids so every school has an equal ratio, won't ALL schools become high poverty and high minority? Is this our definition of equity? Do we put the ENTIRE school system in a special "Achievement Zone" at this point? Does anyone really think CMS won't lose more white, middle-class and affluent families if the student placement office manipulates boundaries lines - again - in an effort to produce this outcome?
There is no question our system has re-segregated itself while losing white and middle-class families but how and if we can reverse this reality does not appear promising if you look at other school systems across the country. Sad but true.
Question for Ann -
CMS defines itself as an "urban" school system when convenient for philanthropic and federal cash handouts. Does the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation currently fund any mostly white "rural" school districts that are poor? How do rural poor districts stack up against suburban schools? Is there an achievement gap here?
With "white" or "bright" flight from CMS, the social engineering projects are becoming harder to pull off for the diversity craved by some. No mention of the debacle with the new HS created "for" Mint Hill and the ridiculous racial make-eup not indicative of the southeastern part of the county. The whole boundary situation was a mess and has been further worsened. Neighborhood schools with equal opportunity for those that want to be educated is what the majority wants!
How does the money for schools get divided up? Is it based on the number of students, or something else?
In response to Anonymous 12:18.
Scientific studies have concluded that poor students generally perform better at high income schools.
The same research also suggests high achieving students generally perform worse at low income schools.
"They and their families saw it as a sign that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leaders are actively working to segregate schools,...."
Of course they did. They've been conditioned to yell "racism" whenever any little thing doesn't go as they want it.
So, what does it accomplish if you put a bunch of "rich" kids in a "poor" school but they don't really associate with each other?
Do the "poor" kids still benefit?
Or are the "rich" kids just harmed for no one's benefit?
It reminds me of the stupid sign I see in my housing development which says "Neighbors Become Friends".
Yeah, sure they do...
I was born in Charlotte and raised in CMS school systems. When I went to college, I realized how much I did not learn in high school that I should have..and I was in all advanced/honors classes! Most of my college friends were from the piedmont region of the state and better prepared for college. Now that I am raising a family in Charlotte, I work and priorize my budget carefully to send my kids to private school. I just can't deal with them not getting the education they deserve and all the CMS issues that will never get resolved.
Please correct me if I'm wrong...
I believe the "tipping point" for white and middle-class flight happens when a school's white population drops below 50 - 55%.
South Meck High is a perfect example of CMS trying to maintain a delicate, high stakes balancing act. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why Dr. Gorman (whose daughter may attend SM) decided to assign the highest paid and one of the most experienced principals in the system to this particular school. The white population at SM is somewhere around 55% after dropping from 60 something percent when Ardrey Kell opened.
The reason "Blue Zone" students were booted out of the Myers Park IB program is two-fold:
The first reason was done in an effort to maintain South Meck's current white and middle-class population by making it more difficult to bypass the school as the overall white population in CMS has plummeted to 33%.
The second reason "Blue Zone" students were booted out of the Myers Park IB program was done in a effort to recreate the balancing act South Meck. has - so far - been able to accomplish over at East Meck. "Strategically" placing two successful magnet programs at both South Meck. and East Meck. certainly comes into play. It will be interesting to see how the upcoming school year transpires at East Meck.
I predict the IB program at Myers Park will be toast in the not to distant future with CMS attempting to keep a 50 -55% white population here through some sort of neighborhood boundary line tweaking. We'll see.
Responding to anonymous 11:25 - Maybe, just maybe, the decision made about redistricting for East Meck was based on common sense. Why would you redistrict kids from OPES to EMHS??? Carmel Middle would then be split among three high schools. Does that make sense? The kids from OP would have to drive thru PHS district to get to EMHS - make sense? The IB program at MPHS was not dismantled. If you're making the argument that Merchant voted in the best interest of his kids then he would have left MPHS alone totally. If anyone should have been redistricted for EMHS it should have been the Cotswold kids. Sometimes the right decision is made - even by the BOE.
Don't know whether Gates Foundation funds any rural/white/poor districts; you might be able to find an answer at gatesfoundation.org
Several years ago, when Judge Howard Manning was studying failing N.C. high schools, he brought in officials from CMS, at least one other urban district (Durham, I think) and a couple of more rural counties that had very high poverty levels. Those counties did not have the kind of poverty-related performance problems that the urban districts did. I don't recall their racial makeup, but do recall that both districts included military bases; there was talk that low-income military families probably had a different culture than urban poverty.
so sick of hearing about segregation in the CMS school System already!!! Stop blaming other people for individual failures. Changing schools, is not the answer. The answers come from home where you should be taught to go to school and be successful it has nothing to do with what race of people are at what school. It is time to knock it off with this!!!!!!! Parents need to step up!!!
Anon 12:08 had it right, schools which are economically diverse are simply more successful, but unpopular. At my own school, we can always gauge tests scores at the school roughly according to the percentages coming in from the 'poor' middle school and the 'middle-class' school.
What y'all need to realize, based on the speed of this, is that the 'plan' already exists. Dr. G already knows exactly what he intends to do, and the Board, as always, will fall in line. Miss Helms, I hope you are able to ferret this info out so we can avoid the usual Kabuki dance of 'seeking public input.'
It is not segregation it is neighborhood schools. If those neighborhoods are not balanced then the school will not be either and that should be ok, or at least better than busing kids 45 minutes to another part of town. It is the year 2010 let's move on and be the best parents we can in the situation we are in, allow teachers to discipline the way they need to, to help us parents not take the place of us parents and show these kids they do matter right in their own neighborhood.
Some years ago, there was a school that had a boundary change. Only 2 parents showed up to 3 well publicized meetings out of an entire school consisting of 800+ students. One of the three meetings was held at the school. I was one of the two parents who attended the meetings. AFTER the new boundary plan was voted on that included parental input, one area of town pitched a conniption and the decision was overturned. Within 3 years, the school went from being close to 50% white to 28% white with 12 trailers and a much higher FRL population. CMS later went back and quietly booted out some low-income areas into another zone in an effort to restore the white population. They were successful in getting the white population up about 7 percentage points. This school will never see a white population close to 50% again. I guarantee it. The one other parent who attended the meetings left the school when we did. I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who can't be bothered to show up to well publicized meetings and then have all the energy and time in the world to complain and protest a decision after it's been made. CMS is not a system that allows parents to sit back and coast. Pay attention or be prepared to be upset.
I thought West Charlotte won some whoop-te-doo award that made everyone hyperventilate?!? These guys should feel honored to go to such a fine award winning school.
Right...?
To anonymous 3:17 and anonymous 12:49, I disagree that economically schools are "better" schools or that it has been "scientifically" proven that poor kids do better in schools with richer kids. Take a look at Myers Park EOC scores broken down by race and economics. West Charlotte
students fare better than Myers Park minorities. There is a group of researchers in this country (several employed by the UNC system) who earn their bread and butter by trying to prove that diversity is the answer to solving the achievement gap--if you try to pin them down they are actually hard pressed to cite specific schools where this is the case. They can come up with some nice theoretical schools, though.
I'm a bit confused. Why do blacks find other blacks so offensive and wish not to be around a large number of them? If you watch them, they gather together at any function and apparently do not wish to be in the presence of whites anyway. So, what do blacks find so troubling about other blacks?
It's funny no one is mentioning the 500 black students they are bringing from West Charlotte to North Meck next year. I didn't notice the 12 year old white kid who stabbed a store clerk yesterday, maybe I should open up my house so when they want to leave North Meck during the day they can have somewhere to steal things from.
I disagree with 3:17 and 12:49--that economically diverse schools are more successful and that "scientific studies" show that poor kids do better at high income schools. Compare minority and high poverty test scores at Myers Park and West Charlotte--minorities come out ahead at West Charlotte. Gap is huge at Myers Park. There is a dedicated group of researches in this country (several employed by the UNC system) who are determined to prove that we should go back to busing. However, if you try to pin them down on exactly which schools are succeeding with minorities because of their diversity they cannot give you a specific answer. They can show you facts and figures about terrific theoretical schools, though.
Good heavens. Let those black single moms get their act together, teach them to read, count and bring up their children. Diversity is not around black, white rich poor. It about success, wanting it, and not wanting to drain tax dollars baby sitting intentionally raised children in poverty by men and women who have no idea what it takes to survive. I came from a very poor and very black family that had two parents and drive. black kids not liking to be around each other says more than school issues.
Ann: When are you going to research why my old school West Charlotte's Alumni Association has been allowed to not even try to get any white students into the group over these last close to fifty years, buy get all these tax breaks.
And especially why they have not found at least one white student to give at least one penny or any or race other than African American to give money to over these fifty plus years?
And why has a white person never served on their board? Strange.
They told me when I joined the White people did not like being around Black people. That was a few years ago and I could not believe it. Larry Bumgarner Class of 1973.
The solution is to simply mandate diversity in neighborhoods for harmony. Determine an optimum racial mix, income level and move families into neighborhoods to balance out the ratios. Utilize the imminent domain rulings to force families to move for the betterment of Mecklenburg County. Then public neighborhood schools would fit in nicely with the optimum diversity and we all could live and be educated happily ever after.... Yeah!
FYI breakdown of CMS in 2009-10 was 41 percent black, 33 percent white, 16 percent Hispanic, 5 percent Asian and a handful of others.
Larry, I'm confused. Is alumni association for students or grads? Are you saying they denied you or other alums membership or refused to take your donations?
To 4:24 from 12:49 (why am I starting to feel like a stealth Russian spy?),
I don't dispute your argument since I am not an educational research expert. I simply stated what I've read and what the prevailing wisdom seems to be within the educational establishment.
The successful KIPP charter school program supports your argument that poor students can perform just as well as high income students without the need to socially engineer everyone.
Interesting Myers Park and West Charlotte EOC stats.
I don't really believe race or wealth is the specific issue most parents worry about. It's performance. Obviously, performance may be correlated to race and wealth, but performance is the deciding issue I pay attention to. For example, lots of non-black parents put their kids into Villa Heights due to it's high performance. I personally would not want my kid at ANY low performing school, regardless of racial composition or wealth profile. Conversely, I would not care if the majority of kids in a school were Black and poor if the performance is off the charts. So, how do we create more schools like Villa Heights in ALL neighborhoods?
Miss Helms,
This is a very interesting series of blogs you've written about the CMS schools over the past few weeks. I've also enjoyed reading the comments here because they (for the most part) remain civil and well-presented. Few things grab the readers attention more than the schooling of their children. The issue of school racial/economic makeup is, along with social security reform and managing illegal immigration, a bona fide "third rail" of politics in this country.
Banter and posturing. Why would one school be better than the other? Pete's fixed everything with TFA and their many talents. If you want to complain about inexperienced teachers, take Gorman to task. TFA was never meant to staff schools at this level. 2 years and about 90% are gone, it insures turnover and low wages.
Ann: Remember how I told that the West Charlotte Alumni Association, which has been around for over 50 plus years, only focuses on African American Students.
I joined them, and tried to get them to start marketing to the classes from the seventies on, but you would have thought I was asking them to end the group.
Do this, and ask them for a list of all who they have helped? Then tell me if in 50 or so years have they helped even one non-African American?
Then ask them to tell you who is White on the membership of Alumni list and how they tried to get the whites to join this group. Ask for the mailings etc. There are no marketing attempts. I just hate to see racism of any form.
Segregation bad, got it.
So riddle me this. How come kids of color can't succeed (according to some anyway) without white kids in their schools?
Isn't that racist and paternalistic in and of itself to think that a certain race can't help themselves and need whitey to come in to rescue them?
I think Americans of color are a heck of a lot better and stronger than that.
=======
Holy Sound Reasoning Batman... It seems that most of the resources needed are parental involvement. Success breeds success. You instill it in your children. Some kids need to be away from students that plain just don't care. It is an inhibiting situation. It is not racial but environmental. You get out of life what you put into it... SG
At Myers Park High African Americans passed EOC's at a rate of 59% in 2008-2009 school year. Economically deprived scored at 60.6%.(Whites passed at a 93.1% rate) At West Charlotte African Americans scored at 68.3%, with ED students scoring at 66.6%.
For many years no one questioned the prevailing wisdom that "diversity" improved a school's performance. No one bothered to look at scores broken down by demographic groups. Hopefully those days are over, and many of the diversity gurus will be put out of business.
By the way Ann ask the Board Members This Question:
As a volunteer at CMS I always wonder why kids always join a gang which never practices diversity?
The thing about schools like KIPP that we need to remember is that they mandate Parental involvement and can remove kids who are discipline issues or who fail to live up to their standards.
I'm worried about the diversity in sports.
Shouldn't they allow a few slow, fat, clumsy kids on the school
teams?
Or are sports too important to mess with that way?
So let me get this straight...
Black kids complained that they were going to be assigned to a predominantly Black/FRL high school and nobody blinks an eye. But if a bunch of White kids took a stand about not wanting to be assigned to a predominantly Black/FRL school, all hell would break loose.
Sounds to me like it's not the message that people cry about. It's the characteristics of the people delivering the message that can be problematic.
This tells us how difficult the entire school assignment process is. If you look only at school proximity, it is quite noticeable that both Myers Park and Butler have very close and seemingly unwieldy boundary issues with East Meck. And what the heck is going on with Rocky River?? They are the very edge of their own attendance zone.
But there is no perfect solution; our population shifts and demographics shift as well. I am old enough to know that Dilwor th was once considered a little bit shady. Schools and school boundaries are very much like commercial real estate - you have to anticipate the trends before they happen. Good luck with that.
The Board of Ed. is responsible for this mess 100 percent. Make no mistakes. They brought Dr. Gorman in and he has brought in his friends and corporate attitude. All I can say is that the current board members shouldn't think about being board members too long.
I say we do a little experiement.
Remember in the movie "The Untouchables" when Ness gets the judge in the Capone trial to believe his name was in Capone's ledger and in order to get rid of the bought jury, Ness gets the jusdge to swap juries from a trial next door?
Why don't we take ALL students from Myers Park and swap them with the students from West Charlotte?
You've now removed the facilities and "qualified teachers" excuses so what's left? The fact you still have a school that is 98% Black, only moved a few miles east?
What's your excuse going to be?
Yea, its not fair to hire only the best most talented or harder workers for the Panthers or Bobcats.
The NBA, NFL are racist stealth segregationist capitalist pigs who make millions and live in big fine homes and drive big fine cars.
Things need to be equalized all everyone and not just the privleged chosen few.
are good, right?
If some are more qualfied, harder workers, more intelligent, more motivated more gifted and excel over others who dont give it 100%, why should the lesser ones not be equalized with the more talented?
Karl Marx published his socialist Communist Manifesto in 1848 just in time for peasant Lincoln. He wrote about classless society, social engineering, equality, and the age old class struggles of the proletariet. No wonder comrade Abe was a big hit. Marx and Lincoln knew the lower class ignorants were the most gullible to believe pie in the sky eyes on the prize lies of getting a free lunch without having to earn or pay for it.
America needs Marxist social engineering in sports and music so everything is equal. These mega millionaires in pro sports are nothing but capitalist pigs anyway. Equalization needed.
Yes, the highly manipulative Student Placement Office and past Board of Education nincompoops deserve plenty of blame for the increase of bright, middle-class and white flight that has occurred in CMS. Shame on the whole lot of them.
However, parents also deserve to be lashed with a wet noodle. Some of the nastiest fighting and finger pointing I experienced as a former CMS parent occurred between white families over school boundary lines. Righteous white families against righteous white families - not white families against any other shade of humanity. Shame on the whole sorry lot of us too.
White has been a color since color was invented and was the original color. Does "let there be light" ring a bell? Check your Crayolas.
Other morons make exaggerative comments about green or purple people are off their rocker. There are no greens or purples on earth. Stop sounding stupid.
White colored people should be offended. There are 7 billion coloreds on earth. No one race owns color.
CESSPOOLS OR CESSCHOOLS?
The pot keeps getting hotter and hotter. While the flame is turned-up on achievement, that same heat is reigniting the explosive segregation issues.
The liberal dream is that achievement will trump race issues.
Families, black or white don't have the time to dream.
It's as if CMS is the Wizard of OZ. A tornado picks up your kid and sends her off to school with three witless characters. But like the movie "Groundhog Day", it keeps happening over and over again every year.
Call it a dream or a bad movie but don't call this an education.
Bolyn McClung
Pineville
Segreate the sexes not your race. Just go with all boys and all girls school. There is too much showing off and distraction putting young people together.
I always find it fascinating when white parents accuse other white parents of being racist for supporting neighborhood schools. In the name of "we/us", these parents have no problem forcefully relocating as many selfish "me/mine" white families as possible INTO their school. Funny how you never hear a peep out of these same folks when a predominately minority area is being relocated OUT of their school. Yeah, we're all so different. Pass the church collection plate.
You can't expect your child to go to the best school possible if it will mess up other social goals.
You can't expect your child to go to the best school possible if it will mess up other social goals.
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