Wake County officials are basking in the glow of national recognition, fueling an already contentious debate over how to educate poor children. Recently, The New York Times ran a story linking the achievement of Wake County’s poor minority students to the system’s “economic integration” policy.
Since 2000, the county has used income as a significant factor in student assignment, striving to limit each school’s low-income population to no more than 40 percent of the total. And test scores have gone up. But does the new policy really deserve all the credit?
A closer look at the data reveals little support for a link between the assignment program and student performance. The New York Times article failed even to compare Wake County’s achievement scores with state gains. In fact, test scores for poor children have gone up across the entire state.
In 2004-05, 68.8 percent of poor Wake students were proficient; the state average was a close 68.3 percent. Mecklenburg County — which serves a much greater concentration of poor students than Wake (42.3 percent compared to 26.5 percent) — had 63 percent of its students at proficient levels. Wake County also neglected to track the five-year performance of the demographic subgroup directly affected by integration — the 3,000 students who were actually reassigned. Clearly, observation of these students would yield the most definitive feedback on the success or failure of economic integration.
Paradoxically, while Wake County’s average household income, median house value, and number of families above poverty level are all up, the public school population is becoming less affluent. Before the program’s implementation, seven schools had more than 40 percent poor students; 23 schools now reflect this percentage of poor children. What’s going on? Families with the means to exercise school choice are doing so, and in droves: The percentage of children leaving the public school system increased this year in Wake County, and, it is suspected, the increase was greater in the more affluent suburbs.
Yet, Wake County School Superintendent Bill McNeal said, “I can’t let choice erode our ability to provide quality programs and quality teaching.” Surely McNeal must know that many families with the financial resources are already exercising choice, confounding his ability to manipulate the demographics of his school district.
But it is true that schools with large percentages of poor students tend toward low student achievement. Why? Part of the problem is that poor families usually have few options when it comes to compensating for weak curriculum and instruction.
Unlike affluent families, poor students are generally trapped in failing schools. And yes, poverty (and all of its attendant problems) does present weighty obstacles for faculty and teachers to overcome. But it is irresponsible to suggest that poverty causes student failure, or that schools are helpless to turn around low achievement.
In Mecklenburg County, poor students make up at least three-fourths of the student body at 34 schools. At Highland Renaissance Academy, recently profiled by the Charlotte Observer, nine out of 10 students are poor and nonwhite. Five years ago, Highland Renaissance was the lowest-scoring elementary school in the district.
Last year, 92 percent of the school’s fifth-grade students scored at proficient levels in math, while 88 percent were proficient readers. What’s the secret? The common denominator is commitment — Principal Jenell Bovis and a group of teachers share a “missionary” zeal for students.
There’s no question that poverty presents hurdles for educators. But many schools such as Highland Renaissance are challenging the idea of economic determinism. Yes, disadvantaged students have special needs, but the solution is not a contrived demographic utopia.
Rather, we must expect to work harder, applying what we learn from schools on the front lines. And we must give families — not county officials — the freedom to make choices about where children go to school.
Lindalyn Kakadelis is director of the North Carolina Education Alliance.