| mySPIN |
 Reframe the Resegregation Problem
by Tom Campbell
September 14, 2006
Reverend William Barber, president of the state NAACP, recently sounded an alarm to our State Board of Education, observing that nearly all of the state’s 44 low-performing high schools have predominantly minority enrollments. Barber noted that many schools and school systems are resegregating, citing Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Greensboro, and Goldsboro schools as examples.
Barber urged the board to take action to discourage local systems from allowing this trend to continue, because he correctly states that these schools have few educational advantages, difficulty in attracting fully qualified teachers, higher levels of teacher turnover, and fewer students passing end-of-grade tests. We could add to that litany higher dropout rates.
Barber clearly sees what is happening in far too many schools. Our question to Mr. Barber and the NAACP is what are you going to do about this? Merely telling boards of education to disallow these practices won’t solve the problem. The honest and painful truth is that parents and students are voting with their feet and their pocketbooks. They are leaving problem schools in droves, moving where they believe their children have the best opportunities to learn.
We would like to think this isn’t just “white flight,” leaving because there are people of color in the desk beside them. After 40 years of integration we should be beyond that, though we admit there are still vestiges of racism. Even so, this is more than a black-white issue.
No, the reasons why parents and students are leaving are because the environments in these schools don’t support high-level learning. It is totally unrealistic to think high quality teachers are going to stay in a school where they get little respect, where they spend much of their time trying to maintain discipline, where students are not there to learn, where administrators won’t insist on high expectations from teachers and students, and where parents don’t support teachers by insisting their children do homework assignments and strive for excellence.
Resegregation is not acceptable; neither is a school that is not conducive to learning. We need to reframe the problem and the solution. Telling school boards to stop allowing parents to leave failing schools is unrealistic and isn’t going to happen. We can come closer to fixing this problem when we stop expecting them to do something, and start asking what we can do.
We can help parents understand their roles and lovingly, but insistently, hold them accountable for being more involved in their child’s education. We can volunteer in these failing schools, support our teachers and administration, even citing how they can improve in their jobs, and we need to let everyone know failure is not acceptable; that we want and are willing to roll up our sleeves to achieve schools of excellence. When we do those things the likely outcome is that our problems will be where to find enough desks to house students who want to attend that school. |
|
