Articles in the Urban Schools category

Legal issues surrounding school diversity policies

Three years after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the race-based student assignment policies in Seattle and Jefferson County, Ky., some urban school leaders are looking to use socioeconomic factors as the criteria to determine student placements designed to promote diversity in their schools.

The strategy holds promise—but comes with a caveat. “I would suggest if it ever gets to the point that you use something as a proxy for race, it still opens you to some [legal] challenge,” said NSBA General Counsel Francisco Negrón.

Urban school leaders received an extensive overview of the legal issues surrounding school diversity policies at a workshop Thursday in Baltimore during the 2010 Annual Conference of NSBA’s Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE).

For local school policymakers, a key point of the high court’s rulings on the Seattle and Jefferson County attendance plans is that the decision did not totally bar the use of race in school district efforts to promote diversity in schools, Negrón said.

The court did, however, set a high bar for the consideration of race, he added. But a school board must show a compelling government interest for its actions—that its policies to promote diversity offer real educational benefits to students and counter the educational harm of racially isolated schools.

In Seattle and Jefferson County, the high court ruled that the school systems had not proven their cases. For example, justices questioned that, if diversity in schools was such an important goal, why did the districts’ policies focus on the mix of whites versus minorities in schools instead of the more complex mix of all racial groups.

“For districts to proclaim their concerns about diversity, and forget about Asians or other types of individuals . . . that would not necessary bode well with the court,” said workshop panelist Jay Worona, general counsel for the New York State School Boards Association.

To pass legal muster, school boards must articulate why specific levels of diversity are needed, why race-neutral policies won’t do the job, and explain how the criteria used in student assignments serve a school district’s educational goals.

When setting up its student assignment plans, school boards would be wise to look first at the feasibility of a race-neutral plan for student assignments, panelists said. Socioeconomic factors, parent education levels, and academic achievement levels are just some of the criteria that could be used in such plans. 

School boards also should weigh other strategies to promote school diversity, such as redrawing attendance boundaries or building new schools in locations that would draw from a diverse population in surrounding neighborhoods.

Another important step is to articulate and document the reasoning behind any policy, Negrón said.

“You, as school board members, as you talk about diversity programs, you need to be aware of what the research says [about diversity and academic gains] and be talking about that,” he said. “Because when you get hauled into court, the question is going to be, ‘Aren’t you doing this [criteria] as a substitute for race?’ Another question will be, ‘Why do you believe this [diversity] is good as an academic goal?’ ”

Near the end of the workshop, Negrón suggested that one of the ironies of the high court’s rulings is that, by making it harder for school boards to promote diversity, the court is making school boards more vulnerable to the same accusations leveled in Brown v. Board of Education—that the existence of segregated schools is denying all children an equal education.

“It may very well be, at some point, a parent sues you,” he said.

Del Stover|October 2nd, 2010|Categories: CUBE Annual Conference 2010, Diversity, School Board News, School Law, Urban Schools|

Experiences, opinions on charters vary widely among CUBE members

Whether an urban school board member sees charter schools as an innovative tool for educational progress —or sees them as unnecessary competition that drains students and money from the local school system—often depends on what state that school leader lives in.

That became apparent at a sometimes-spirited discussion of charter schools held Thursday at the 43rd Annual Conference of NSBA’s Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) in Baltimore, Md.

In Maryland, where local schools are the authorizing body for charters, the Baltimore City school system has a good working relationship with most of its charters, said workshop panelist David Stone, a Baltimore school board member. Thirty of the city’s 198 schools are charters.

“We have a variety of programs that we’re quite proud of,” he said. “We have a Montessori charter school, a charter that focuses on the arts, one with a focus on health and fitness.”

But local school boards are the primary authorizing agent under Maryland law, said Stone, who has one child in a charter school and another at a district-run school. Charter school employees work for the school district, are subject to local collective bargaining agreements, and must be managed by a non-profit group.

Speaking from the audience, some Ohio school board members complained their state charter laws are flawed. A number of charters aren’t performing well, yet not only do these schools remain in operation, their students are transported at the expense of the local school systems.

These costs are particularly galling when the charters are run for profit.  “The relation-ship is pretty adversarial,” one board member said. “We have to pay to transport kids to charter schools [while they are] making a profit.”

Stone suggested that board member anger was misplaced. “It’s not the charter schools, it’s your legislature that did this. That’s whom you need to be arguing with. Charter schools didn’t design your state law.”

Over the course of the workshop, several examples were given of foundations and other non-profit groups partnering with charters to provide health and social services to students. That prompted a question from a New Jersey school board member about why such resources weren’t being directed to the public schools.

“Why is it that nonprofit organizations wouldn’t be interested in building up our public schools?” she asked. “I don’t understand why non-profits don’t work with the public schools to build up the public schools and make them better.”

Stone’s reply was blunt. “I will tell you, in my experience, if you talk to nonprofits, one reason they’re drawn to working with charters is they have been stymied at every corner working with the public school system and bureaucracy. They come to school systems with great ideas then get shuffled around from office to office.”

Such exchanges were rare but the most dynamic part of the panel discussion, which largely focused on the growth of charters and, where state laws and local conditions are favorable, the promise of charters as a laboratory for successful educational practices—and, in theory, an example of holding schools accountable for academic performance.

Nationwide, critics have argued such accountability hasn’t been as rigorous as promised. But Ursula Wright, chief operating officer of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said school boards have every right to insist on that accountability, even where the school board is not responsible for the school’s charter.

Go to the authorizer body with the appropriate information, she said. “If a school is not serving its students, not living up to its charter . . . it needs to be shut down.”

Del Stover|October 1st, 2010|Categories: Charter Schools, CUBE Annual Conference 2010, School Board News, Urban Schools|

VIDEO: NSBA’s Executive Director Anne Bryant shares her thoughts on Education Nation

National School Boards Association’s Executive Director Anne L. Bryant was a panelist today on Education Nation’s closing session, “Talking to our Policy Makers,” moderated by NBC’s Brian Williams.

The session aired live on MSNBC.com, but the full video of this session is not yet posted. BoardBuzz will let you know when it’s up.

Check out this video by the New Jersey School Boards Association of  Bryant sharing her thoughts and insights following the closing session of Education Nation:

Alexis Rice|September 28th, 2010|Categories: Charter Schools, Multimedia and Webinars, NSBA Opinions and Analysis, Student Achievement, Teachers, Urban Schools|

E-Rate gets an upgrade

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today approved upgrades that would allow schools and libraries the ability to access faster and more affordable Internet access through E-rate.

The FCC’s upgrades to E-rate include:

  • Super-Fast Fiber: The FCC’s E-rate Order will help bring affordable, super-fast fiber connections to America’s schools and libraries. It allows participants to use E-rate funds to connect to the Internet in the most cost-effective way possible, including via unused fiber optic lines already in place across the country and through existing state, regional and local networks. With these fiber networks, schools and libraries can provide students and communities with cutting-edge connectivity, while at the same time saving millions of dollars by bypassing more expensive options.

  • School Spots: The FCC is also opening the door to “School Spots” — where schools have the option to provide Internet access to the local community after students go home. With affordable fiber, these School Spots are a major step toward the National Broadband Plan’s goal of connecting an anchor institution in every community to affordable 1 gigabit per second broadband. School Spots will help ensure that people who otherwise lack access can use broadband.

  • Learning On-the-Go: The FCC is launching a pilot program that supports off-campus wireless Internet connectivity for mobile learning devices. Education doesn’t stop at the schoolyard gate or the library door. Digital textbooks and other innovative wireless devices allow students to learn in a real-world context, inside the classroom and beyond. Because of their low cost and accessibility, these mobile devices can also help advance digital equality, particularly for children from economically disadvantaged communities.

  • 21st Century E-rate Program: The Order brings E-rate into the 21st Century by making the program more effective and efficient.

Issues concerning E-rate are one of many topics that will be addressed at this year’s T+L Conference, held in Phoenix from October 19-22. In addition, Karen Cator, director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Education Technology will be a featured speaker at the conference and is incidentally the subject of the American School Board Journal’s monthly newsmaker profile.

Don’t miss either opportunity to keep your system and staff informed and ready to meet the future of education.

Naomi Dillon|September 23rd, 2010|Categories: Conferences and Events, Educational Technology, NSBA Opinions and Analysis, Rural Schools, Student Achievement, Teachers, Urban Schools|

Is education reform just hype?

BoardBuzz is a big fan of Valerie Strauss. She writes The Washington Post blog, The Answer Sheet. She recently highlighted a great commentary piece by Anthony Cody, who was a science teacher in Oakland for 18 years and founder of the website Teachers Lead. His commentary originally appeared on the Teacher Magazine’s website.

We couldn’t agree more with Cody assessment, which notes:

Education reformers have invested billions of dollars in numerous ventures that promote their vision, and we’ll see them in the next few weeks. The release of the documentary Waiting for Superman, NBC’s Education Nation specials and teacher town hall, and D.C. Schools Superintendent Michelle Rhee and Bill Gates on The Oprah Winfrey Show — all will create a crescendo of voices, images and the master narrative that has been carefully developed over the past decade.


That narrative goes like this: Our schools are failing. The only way to save them is to expand charters, remove due process for teachers so they can be fired, and further raise the stakes on standardized test scores.


But ideologically driven projects like this have a way of over reaching, over-promising, and overestimating their strength. And the moment that they reach their apex is actually the moment they begin to collapse. Education reform has finally jumped the shark.


The signs of its imminent collapse are all around us.


They begin with the fundamental problem the education reform movement faces. We are more than 10 years into a massive reform effort revolving around high stakes attached to standardized tests, and there is no significant growth in actual learning — even in terms of the test scores most valued by proponents.

So what do you think? Is education reform bringing positive change to education?

Alexis Rice|September 22nd, 2010|Categories: Federal Programs, NSBA Opinions and Analysis, Student Achievement, Teachers, Urban Schools|

Tell NBC what’s going right in public education

Without question, NBC’s upcoming Education Nation summit and its related programming, promotion, and pontificating promises to put an unprecedented spotlight on the nation’s K-12 schools. But BoardBuzz is concerned; as the agenda seems focused on what’s wrong with public schools, not what’s right.

This week, on the Today Show’s website, producers are asking parents to “share thoughts on what you wish you’d known back then.” Under the heading “What Went Wrong for Your Child in School?”, the show asks for stories – 200 words or less – that focus on “your experiences with kids in kindergarten, elementary school, middle school and high school.”

The most intriguing stories – more than likely the worst – will be part of a future Today Show segment.

Other than the word count, and the usual disclaimers you find on something like this, there are no rules. So, in the interest of fairness, BoardBuzz was thinking: “What went RIGHT for your child in school?” might make an interesting topic instead.

Take our challenge: Go to the Today Show’s site and give them 200 words on what went right for you or for your child in school. And before you hit the send button, make a copy and e-mail it to  editor@asbj.com. We’ll run the best responses in a future issue of the American School Board Journal.

Alexis Rice|September 21st, 2010|Categories: Announcements, High Schools, NSBA Opinions and Analysis, Rural Schools, Student Achievement, Teachers, Urban Schools|

Obama goes back to school

In case you missed it on Tuesday, here is the video from President Barack Obama’s back to school speech at Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia, Pa.:

Alexis Rice|September 15th, 2010|Categories: Federal Programs, High Schools, Multimedia and Webinars, NSBA Opinions and Analysis, Student Achievement, Teachers, Urban Schools|

Connecting with The Wire

Let’s start out with full disclosure.  BoardBuzz has been a fan HBO’s now canceled show, The Wire, for quite some time.  Sure, like many of you, we were late to the party, but we caught up (thanks to re-runs and Netflix) and found the show to be a compelling and contagious mix of characters, plot lines, and chemistry that brought a city to life.  Sure, the setting is Baltimore, but it really could take place in any urban center in the U.S.

That’s why we were happily surprised when we noticed in The Washington Post an opinion piece by two Harvard professors describing the class they are conducting on urban inequality and using The Wire as a backdrop to the topics being discussed.

The professors note:

We think it is more than just excellent television. Impressed by its treatment of complex issues, we developed a course at Harvard drawing on the show’s portrayal of fundamental sociological principles connected to urban inequality. Our seminar was designed for 30 students; four times that many showed up for the first class last week.

Even though a TV show being used for a class may suggest an easy A, we’re pretty sure nothing is a given at Harvard.  The professors point out the need for a better understanding about urban schools in particular.  What many of the students taking the class may or may not know is their future could be in one of the urban classrooms depicted on the show.  A large percentage of those students working for Teach for America come from the Ivy League schools, and the competition is tough to get a slot as a teacher through the program.

So if you haven’t tuned into The Wire at any point, it’s worth a look.  All of season four is set around the schools, and it is sometimes difficult to watch the reality TV that occurs around urban education.  The issues they address haven’t disappeared in our urban districts.  We can only hope those students at Harvard start coming up with ways of addressing urban issues as a whole, instead of in compartmented TV seasons.

Kevin Scott|September 13th, 2010|Categories: NSBA Opinions and Analysis, Teachers, Urban Schools|

Four districts named finalists for 2010 CUBE Annual Award for Urban School Board Excellence

Rising test scores, greater numbers of minorities in academically rigorous classes, turning around low-performing schools—such achievements were among many cited by the Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) in announcing finalists for the 2010 Annual Award for Urban School Board Excellence.

Finalists are the Baltimore City Public Schools, Broward County (Fla.) Public Schools, Houston Independent School District, and the Portsmouth, Va., school system.

“These finalists demonstrate the innovative efforts that are occurring in urban education,” says NSBA Executive Director Anne L. Bryant. “Too often we hear about the failures in our urban schools, yet these school districts are successful in helping children reach great academic heights.”

An independent judging panel selected the finalists based on the school systems’ achievement in four areas: excellence in school board governance, building civic capacity, closing the achievement gap, and demonstrated success in academic excellence.

The Baltimore City Public Schools have seen “double-digit improvements” on standardized test scores, and the dropout rate has improved by 33 percent since the early 2000s, judges noted. Such success has bolstered public confidence in the school system and helped it reverse a four-decade decline in student enrollment.

Students in Broward County, Fla., regularly equal or beat state test score averages in reading and math, despite a sizable urban core and poverty rate among students. The number of African-American and Latino students taking Advanced Placement classes have increased by more than half over the past five years, and more than 80 percent of the county’s schools earn a grade of A or B in the state’s accountability system.

The Houston school system was recognized for a variety of reform efforts, including a program to link teacher performance reviews to student achievement. Overall, 80 percent of the district’s schools met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals in 2009, and more than 70 percent of schools reported increases in state test scores.

After crafting a new strategic plan several years ago, the Portsmouth Public Schools has reorganized its elementary and middle schools, shaken up its central office instructional team, and reassigned principals at six low-performing schools. Last year, gradual but steady academic gains allowed Portsmouth to win state accreditation for all its schools.

The 2010 CUBE Annual Award for Urban School Board Excellence will be presented Oct. 2 at the CUBE Annual Conference in Baltimore.

Del Stover|September 7th, 2010|Categories: Governance, School Board News, School Boards, Urban Schools|

School reform?

Robert J. Samuelson of The Washington Post takes on school reform today in his column noting:

“‘Reforms’ have disappointed for two reasons. First, no one has yet discovered transformative changes in curriculum or pedagogy, especially for inner-city schools, that are (in business lingo) “scalable” — easily transferable to other schools, where they would predictably produce achievement gains. Efforts in New York and the District to raise educational standards involve contentious and precarious school-by-school campaigns to purge “ineffective” teachers and principals. Charter schools might break this pattern, though there are grounds for skepticism. In 2009, the 4,700 charter schools enrolled about 3 percent of students and did not uniformly show achievement gains.”

Let us know what you think, has school reform been successful on the federal level?

Alexis Rice|September 6th, 2010|Categories: Charter Schools, Educational Legislation, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Multimedia and Webinars, NSBA Opinions and Analysis, Urban Schools|
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