All posts in the topic Minn Post: School Segregation series, part 3 (Short link)

Nov 20 16:15 UTC

Beth H and Cynthia B wrote,

"...Others contend that when it comes to concentrations of impoverished
children, there's nothing in particular about a school's governance that makes
it
more or less likely to succeed."

Put another way, 'schools with very concentrations of minority and poor
students  are doomed to failure. These schools cannot be fixed, "...others
contend..."

In the 1999 Desegregation Rule, Statement of Need and Reasonableness, I noted
a contention that racial integration by itself produces no significant
benefit academically. The State also contends that school quality makes a huge
difference.

The 1999 MN Desegregation Rule allows school districts to maintain 'racially
identifiable' schools (enrollment of students of color greater than 20% above
the district average for grade levels served), so long as the racially
identifiable schools have educational inputs comparable to schools in the same
district that are not racially identifiable. There is a list of inputs,
including
teacher qualifications and experience that must be monitored. And where
disparities exist, a plan to eliminate them is to supposed to be written and
submitted
to the MN Dept of Ed.

In Minneapolis, there 23 'racially identifiable schools' among the district's
regular public schools in 2005, and 21 of them were on the MN Dept of Ed list
of the state's worst performing scores. None of the district's other schools
made that list.

The two racially identifiable schools in the Minneapolis School District that
did not make the 2005 list of worst performers were Hall and North Star
elementary schools. These were among the district's worst performing schools
before
the district administration brought down teacher turnover rates in those
schools by not firing and replacing the newer teachers who worked there.

We know that very high teacher turnover rates strongly correlate with very
low test scores. And the Minneapolis School District has demonstrated that
lowering teacher turnover rates can help to raise test scores. And the MPS
Board
and administration has affirmed that high teacher turnover causes poor student
outcomes in the 2002 District improvement plan, which calls for low teacher
turnover rates in all schools, and in the 2008 'Covenant' with a group
representing the African-American community, which defines a model school for
African
American students as one that utilizes best teaching practices and has a low
teacher turnover rate.

The Minneapolis School District has for decades maintained, and continues to
maintain a revolving door for new teachers. Few are allowed to complete their
3 year probationary period. In the Spring of 2004 about one-fourth of the
tenure-track, classroom teachers in regular Ed programs had not completed their
3
year probationary period. The district fires and replaces these teachers, and
rehires as few as possible.

Why maintain a revolving door for new teachers? Keeping a big pool of
low-paid teachers helps to keep down payroll costs. However, enough money is
spent on
training and supervision of first year teachers that for at least several
years it would cost the district less money to allow all of its competent new
teachers to keep their jobs.

The Minneapolis School District also gets money from the federal government
under Title 1 of the civil rights act of 1964 and 'compensatory' money from the
State of Minnesota. The bulk of this money goes to schools with high
concentrations of poor students. And most of it is spent on training and
supervising
new teachers.

And it's pretty much the same story in other school districts in the US with
high concentrations of poor and minority students: About two-thirds of new
teachers in US public schools are assigned to schools where African-American
and
Puerto Rican students are over-represented (2 sources, 'closing the gap,' 2004
Minnesota Public Radio web site)

It is ironic that Title 1 funds, which are in theory to be used to eliminate
racial discrimination in the field of public education are being used to
perpetuate it.

No Child Left Behind sets targets for closing racial test score gaps, but
doesn't even address the school quality gap. It's not about fixing the public
school system as we know it, its about abolishing it.

-Doug Mann, most popular Minneapolis School Board candidate with U of MN
students in 2008

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