School Integration Efforts Face Renewed Opposition

 
This story from the front page of Thursday's WSJ about efforts to better integrate the four elementary schools in Milton, MA is a good case study of similar efforts made over many decades around the country.  The hard truth is that in virtually every town and city in this country, the lowest-performing schools are those that serve minority kids (in most cases, they are low-income, minority kids, but this is true even when they're not low income; the article notes that in Milton, the "average household income of the neighborhood that feeds Tucker is $102,000 -- not much lower than the whiter areas of town.").
 
I believe that this is one of the greatest challenges facing this nation, so it drives me crazy when even intelligent, well-meaning people look at these facts and (consciously or unconsciously) come to two very erroneous conclusions: 1) the problem is that minority kids (and/or their parents) aren't very bright and/or academically motivated; and 2) the solution to the problem is to socially engineer who attends which schools such that more minority kids share classrooms (or at least schools) with white or Asian kids.  (I guess the idea is that white and Asian kids studying hard will somehow inspire the African-American and Latino kids to study hard as well?)
 
I have many, many problems with this thinking and the resulting actions that people in Milton and around the country are taking.
 
First of all, this article is completely silent on the teachers at the four elementary schools in Milton, but I would bet my last dollar that if one were to carefully evaluate every teacher at the four schools and rate them based on dozens of metrics (both "input" measures like years of experience, the caliber of the college and ed school they went to, grades and scores, whether they majored or minored in college in the subject they're teaching, etc.; as well as "output" measures like principal, parent and student evaluations, increase in test scores of each teacher's students, etc.), you would find that the white kids in Milton are far more likely to have the most effective teachers, whereas the African-American kids get the least effective teachers.  Every study I've ever seen shows this to be the case nationwide (it's true of principal talent as well), so it strains credulity to think Milton would be any different.  Thus, is it any surprise that the students at Tucker are performing at lower levels!?!?

Sure, Milton's African-American kids would benefit from moving to one of the "white" schools, but less because of white kids being good role models, and more because they'd get better teachers!  Every study shows that teacher quality swamps every other factor: in other words, a class of low-income, minority kids from broken homes and chaotic neighborhoods will learn more with a highly effective teacher than my kids will with a highly ineffective teacher.

So given this, if Milton wants equality of educational opportunity among its schools, why on earth is it shuffling students around?!  Instead, Milton should be moving teachers and principals around!!!  Ah, but I forgot: our schools aren't run by and for kids -- they're run by and for adults!  GRRRR!!!

Haven't we learned by now that shuffling students around, even if that results in better educational opportunities for minority kids, just doesn't work?  Students and parents don't like being moved around, forced to attend distant schools and being in a foreign environment -- and even if some minority families will do it for the educational benefit, we know with 100% certainty that white families will simply abandon the public schools altogether if their children are forced to attend schools that are perceived to be (usually correctly, sadly) dangerous and/or ineffective.

Let me be clear: I don't like how segregated our schools are and wish every school in our nation were beautifully integrated.  But it's not going to happen, and trying to pound that square peg through a round hole hasn't worked and, I predict, will never work, especially in light of the current Supreme Court.  As a nation, we need to accept the reality that most people choose to live near people just like themselves, and therefore the local schools will reflect this segregation -- and nothing's going to change that anytime soon.  

Now, in truth, if Milton were to suddenly swap the principals and teachers between Milton's highest performing school and Tucker, I don't think the achievement gap would reverse or even disappear -- there are no doubt other factors at work (the African-American kids would still come from households with lower income levels, probably watch more TV and spend less time doing homework ( for data on this, see slide #2 here: www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Homeworkmyth.pdf  ), are more likely to come from single-parent families with lower average education levels of parents, etc.).  But I'd bet that the majority of the achievement gap would disappear if the quality of the schools and teachers were equalized.

Therefore, we need to have a paradigm shift: stop blaming the victims of failing schools and commit to improving those schools.  I know with certainty, because I've seen it with my own eyes, that schools comprised primarily or entirely of low-income African-American and/or Latino students can succeed, if they have high expectations, a strong culture and high-caliber teachers and school leaders (the things Jon Sackler talks about below).  One doesn't have to look far to find examples that prove what's possible: for example, at KIPP, in 12 years in NYC, to my knowledge we've never had a single white student -- yet we're sending 80%+ of our graduates to four-year colleges.  It can be done!

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ROLLBACK
School Integration Efforts Face Renewed Opposition
Supreme Court Ruling Sways Milton Battle;  Off to Private School
By JOSEPH PEREIRA
October 11, 2007; Page A1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119204532864854966.html?mod=hps_us_pageone

MILTON, Mass. -- 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.