Last spring, town officials in this affluent Boston suburb changed the elementary-school assignments for 38 streets — and sparked outrage. Some white families had been reassigned to Tucker, a mostly black school which has historically had Milton’s lowest test scores.
Among those reassigned is Kevin Keating, a white parent who is talking to lawyers about going to court to reverse the plan. I “just don’t feel good putting [my son] in an inferior school,” he says. His ammunition: the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling that consideration of race in school assignments is unconstitutional. Without the backing of the Supreme Court, Mr. Keating says his effort wouldn’t have “much of a standing.”
Five decades ago, federal courts began forcing reluctant districts to use race-based assignments to integrate schools. But in June, a bitterly divided Supreme Court reversed course, concluding that two race-based enrollment plans in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle were unconstitutional. “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” Chief Justice John Roberts declared.
Now, in an era when schools nationwide are becoming increasingly segregated, the ruling is affecting local school districts in ways large and small. Some districts are sidestepping the ruling by replacing measurements of race with household income. But many others, such as Milton, are adjusting their programs in the face of opposition that’s been emboldened by the Supreme Court decision.
In Georgia, the Bibb County School District, which encompasses Macon, has decided to abandon a balancing plan between whites and minorities at one of its top magnet schools next year. A broader school-board redistricting plan aimed at promoting integration is facing a host of opposition, including a threat of legal action by a lawyer citing the Supreme Court decision.
2 thoughts on “School Integration Efforts Face Renewed Opposition”
Comments are closed.
From Mass. DOE 2006-07, data for 2 Milton elementary schools, partially compiled below:
Poverty: Glover 7%, Tucker 17%
Race: Glover 8% black, 87% white
Tucker 38% black, 43% white
%age of black students and %age of white students at each school scoring ‘in need of improvement'(in 2 lowest categories of 4 total, just like WKCE) on various tests:
Glover Tucker
grade subject black white black white
4 math 58 19 50 17
4 Eng/LA 33 14 57 11
5 math 60 13 66 34
5 Eng/LA 50 15 61 17
5 science 70 30 82 34
Unfortunately, one can’t see finer divisions, like scores by race and poverty, e.g., scores of low-SES whites and low-SES blacks. So one can’t tell how much of the effect is from low-SES. However, it’s clear the link is not as tight as here in Madison.
In fact, it isn’t clear that the black students at Glover get much advantage. What differences there are might be explained by somewhat higher rates of poverty among black students at Tucker. So why are the administrators there so convinced that mixing up the pot a bit more will solve all their problems?
I am puzzled by this data (you can see more details at Mass. DOE). It seems like the performance of black students at both schools should be much better than it is, given what one might guess about SES. Is it institutional racism beating them down at every turn, or different parenting styles between races, even at comparable levels of wealth?
What do people think?
There is nothing puzzling about the data.
“Founded in 1664, Milton, just south of the Boston city line, is a town of 26,000. There are no malls or movie theaters, and about half the town is made up of conservation park land. The town, which is home to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and the prestigious Milton Academy boarding school, is an enclave of above-middle-class affluence with a per-capita household income of around $102,000 to $119,000.
Milton’s black population is concentrated in the northwest section of town, sometimes referred to locally as “Miltonpan” because it adjoins Boston’s predominantly black Mattapan neighborhood. The student body at Tucker elementary school, which serves this area, is 65% nonwhite, up from 51% seven years ago.”
Notice the PER-CAPITA income (average?) is between $102K and $119K. Assuming a family of 4, the average household income is between $400,000 and $480,000 per year. Notice, the article says that blacks are concentrated in “Miltonpan”. I would bet the per-capita income in Miltonpan is somewhat less than $100,000. What do you think?
Looking at the recent 3rd-5th grade scores and breakdown, where NI means Needs Improvement, and W means Warning/Failing
3rd Reading
Low Income: NI=47%, W=0%
Blacks: NI=39%, W=0%
Whites: NI=11%, W=0%
3rd Math:
Low Income: NI=27%, W=20%
Blacks: NI=35%, W=9%
Whites: NI=5%, W=5%
But interestingly,
Males: NI=7%, W=7%
Females: NI=29%, W=4%.
So, in 3rd math, it looks like girls are having particular problems. Could there be substantial sex bias in teaching math or on the test or a home culture bias?
The other data for 4th and 5th grades in English and Math are likewise show that there is strong tracking of SES and low scores, and tracks Blacks and low scores. I would bet that the correlation between Low Income and Blacks in Milton is almost 1.0; that is, I would guess about 100% of blacks in Milton are Low Income.
See http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/mcas/subgroups2.aspx?district=189&school=020&mcasyear=2007