CMS equity policy aims to level the playing field for all students
A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools committee approved a draft policy Monday that aims to break the linkages between student achievement and social-economic status, race and ethnicity.
The equity policy, as it is called, will be the subject of two public hearings, with the first on April 23, before it goes to the full CMS board for approval. The board and its policy committee, which voted Monday, has wrestled with the task for more than a year.
The district’s annual diversity report makes clear the racial and poverty disparities in many schools. While whites make up 28 percent of all CMS students this year, Albemarle Road Middle School is only 5 percent white but 85 percent black or Hispanic. Myers Park High, in contrast, is 62 percent white but 33 percent black or Hispanic.
Social and economic differences are even starker, with virtually all students at some schools coming from families that rank low for indicators such as income and educational attainment. At other schools, nearly all students come from the opposite end of that spectrum.
Student achievement mirrors those divisions. White students in low-poverty schools have the best odds of getting top-notch teachers and graduating ready for college, CMS Superintendent Clayton Wilcox reported more than a year ago, while black and Hispanic students at high-poverty schools are left behind.
The draft policy approved Monday calls for ways to measure and monitor equity in the schools, seeking to focus “on those aspects of equity that can be documented.”
It lays out six factors that will be reported on quarterly: student assignment; educational opportunities and expectations; student wellness; school facilities; human resources, leadership and staff; and family engagement.
The policy committee offered two options on school assignment for the full CMS board to consider.
One would report changes in the socioeconomic composition of schools and make recommendations for reducing concentrations of poor or students.
The other approach would document progress toward specific goals, such as reducing overcrowding and offering other options to students assigned to low-performing schools.
Both would consider the impact of housing patterns that are outside the district’s authority but affect student assignment.
Some reports would be data-heavy summaries on topics such as student participation in advanced curricula and challenges that plague low-performing schools, such as teacher absenteeism and staff turnover. Others would monitor progress in other ways, such as the level of family engagement in schools.