Class diversity vital in schools

There are few success stories in urban public education, but Wake County, N.C., is one of them.

For years the school district has followed a policy of balancing its schools with a mix of students that matched the community's social-economic make-up. That required some busing. Unfortunately, growth now means more than 6,400 students must be shuttled about each day to maintain that balance. Like an effort recently attempted in Nashville, some parents want to rezone the school system to reduce busing and destroy that balance.

Wake Education Partners, a community group that supports diversity in schools, has released a new report on the program that shows it is having amazing success. Students in schools where the percentage of low-income students was 20 percent or less had a passing rate on state exams of 83.7 percent. When the percent of low-income students climbed to 60 percent or more, the passing rate dropped to 70 percent. In a school district like Nashville with 75,000 students, that means 9,750 more passing grades!

The report notes, "...schools burdened by high concentrations of poor students and low achievement often face insurmountable challenges. Conversely, students in schools with a critical mass of children from middle class families tend to benefit from better teachers, stronger parental support and the influence of classmates more likely to be engaged academically."

By mixing students from all parts of society, the results for everyone improve. Students from poorer homes push themselves to match the results being attained by students from middle- and upper-class homes while the research clearly shows that there is no negative impact on scores or graduation rates attained by the higher-income students.

Public education is a community responsibility and it comes with a community solution. When we work, live and learn together, we become stronger. While rezoning may seem like a solution to busing, it really is taking a step backwards.

Unless our neighborhoods can reflect the diversity that exists in Nashville, busing students will not only be necessary, it will be of critical importance to improving the drop-out rate in our schools.

    -- Jim Grinstead

Comments

[Kathleen Harkey]

Jim: Thanks for posting this. In the spring of 2004 when I was on the Metro School Board and with my fellow Board members'approval, I invited people from Wake County to do a seminar for our Board and community leaders. They did and it was very fascinating. Several other Board members insisted we could not replicate their work. It is a model we can replicate but it would take much work. What choice do we really have though if we want to make our public schools viable and desirable. Now is the time to start.