CMS board: We want educational equity, but we still can’t define it

Creating opportunities for all students to get a good education is arguably the central task for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board. It’s often referred to as equity, the theme of a 2.5-hour special session Tuesday.

The nine members exchanged ideas and observations, but didn’t settle on a definition of equity, let alone figure out how to measure it and make it happen.

“I think we actually get sidetracked by talking about equity,” Tom Tate, the board’s senior member, said in frustration.

Several members said the lack of equity shows up in persistent links between race, poverty and academic success, with African American, Hispanic and low-income students trailing peers in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and across the nation. They noted that students with disabilities and limited English skills need extra help to succeed as well.

They talked about things that can hold students back, such as excessive suspensions, and things that lead to success, from great teachers to mentors.

“Many of our schools that are struggling have very high levels of inexperienced teachers,” said board member Ericka Ellis-Stewart. She noted that a perennially tough topic – should CMS assign teachers to schools in need of help, rather than merely encouraging them to apply? – is “worthy of a discussion.”

As Tate and other members noted, CMS has been trying to define, measure and accomplish equity for close to 20 years. Advisory panels and data reports have come and gone. At Tuesday’s regular evening meeting, the board will introduce a revised policy that adds high-quality teaching and rigorous instruction as equity goals, without spelling out how they’ll be measured.

“It’s not like we’ve not been talking about it. We’ve ebbed and flowed on how we define it,” said board member Rhonda Lennon.

The current discussion is driven partly by an accreditation visit by AdvancED, which criticized the district for its failure to consistently define such a central issue. Facilitator Brian Perkins, director of the urban education leadership program at Columbia University, urged the board to start with a 2013 report from the federal Equity and Excellence Commission titled “For Each and Every Child.”

Perkins asked members to rate their progress on several measures. Most indicated plenty of room to improve, especially when it came to engaging other community leaders. Vice Chair Elyse Dashew voiced concern that the school board hasn’t been actively working with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Opportunity Task Force, which is looking at barriers that keep people from moving out of poverty.

Members cited their unanimous approval of a revised magnet plan in November as one of their biggest recent achievements, but several members noted that it remains to be seen how that plan plays out this year.

Perkins told the board he didn’t expect them to settle all their questions about equity on Tuesday. “This is just to get the wheels turning for you,” he said.

This story was originally published January 24, 2017 at 6:29 PM with the headline "CMS board: We want educational equity, but we still can’t define it."