A front page editorial headline Sunday in The Tennessean reads "Resegregation fears outstrip Metro plan's reality, " without any factual basis for making that claim.
The facts reported in the story could just as easily support a lede that says, "Nashville's already segregated schools will become even more so under a rezoning plan approved by the Board of Education." A graphic with the story even acknowledges that 60 percent of the schools will move away from population averages for the district.
Overall, the story seems to suggest that if the school district isn't in such bad shape that the courts need to step in, that increased segregation is just fine. The only way to justify such a headline is to assume those supporting the plan are correct. In embracing that assumption, The Tennessean turned a news story into an editorial without labeling it as such.
The Tennessean wants the story to be about numbers, but rezoning is a story about people. More specifically, children and their futures. If numbers were all that mattered, the rezoning issue would be pointless, but it's the effect created by the mix of numbers has that is the real story -- and it's a story the newspaper is not reporting.
Take school turnover -- the percentage of children who move in and out of a school during a school year. School district figures show that the turnover at Pearl-Cohn during the 2005-06 school year was 46.2 percent. High turnover rates reduce stability and force teachers to slow down the pace of education because they must constantly bring new students up to speed with the rest of the class. Pearl-Cohn is one of the schools that will be most impacted by rezoning and it's fair to assume if you put more economically disadvantaged students in the school, that turnover will increase.
Compare that with magnet schools -- schools that students and parents choose to attend -- where turnover rates are typically below five percent.
The mix of students also impacts the learning environment other ways. In a survey of students published in 2007 by the Oasis Center, more than 84 percent had seen fights in the school. Contrast that with students at magnet schools where nearly 69 percent say they had never seen a fight. When schools are desirable places to be, there is peace. When schools reflect the frustrations of poor neighborhoods, they have diminished value.
Integrated schools aren't about balancing numbers, they're about creating environments that are stable and promote learning. That's what rezoning should be about -- not worrying about whether the district will pass a court test or whether all the buildings are being used to their maximum potential.
Fictional headlines that promote a false reality do nothing to help parents understand the performance gap in our schools that deprives economically disadvantaged kids of the education they desperately need.
The focus should be on children and creating a quality learning environment. The Tennessean's promotion of an agenda based on numbers only distracts from that goal.
-- Jim Grinstead
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