2020-09-22 School Redistricting presentation
New Hanover
County Schools:
The impact of
neighborhood
schools
Some background
•The New Hanover County Schools in the mid-90s
were forced, by the Department of Education’s
Office of Civil Rights, to have between 15% and
50% African-Americans in each school
•The philosophy of diverse schools continued after
the order expired in 1997.
•Then-Superintendent John Morris said in 2004
that diversity was driven by a “moral
responsibility” to avoid re-segregation.
•“Our students will not live and work in a
segregated world and shouldn’t attend
segregated schools,” Dr. Morris said
A new directive
•In the mid-2000s, mostly suburban parents
sought a return to “neighborhood schools.”
•This faction won control of the School Board.
Redistricting started in 2006.
•Schools that were already racially misaligned
remained so. Others quickly fell out of balance.
•By 2010, middle schools were also redistricted.
What impact has neighborhood schools had
•
on our schools?
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Before redistricting …
2005 FRLWhiteA-ARank
(1,276)*
Parsley 16.8%87%8.8%37
Ogden 27%83.5%13.7%81
Wrightsville 9.3%93.6%5.4%63
Beach
Holly Tree 25.1%70.7%24.3%52
Codington 13.8%86.4%11.9%14
Forest Hills 52.9%47.5%45.9%706
Gregory 41.3%48.2%49%180
Snipes 88.4%28.4%64.8%1120
* Rankings date back to 2006. Ogden ranking is from 2008
Freeman 70.8%44.3%44.1%1013
How that was addressed?
2005 FRLWhiteA-ARank 2019 FRLWhiteA-ARank (1,461)
(1,276)
Parsley 16.8%87%8.8%3718.7% 83%2.2%4
Ogden 27%83.5%13.7%8119.3%86.6%1.9%6
Wrightsville 9.3%93.6%5.4%6312.9%89.4%1.3%9
Beach
Holly Tree 25.1%70.7%24.3%5230.3%79%6.5%58
Codington 13.8%86.4%11.9%1427.5%79.8%5.5%61
Forest Hills 52.9%47.5%45.9%706
Gregory 41.3%48.2%49%180
Snipes 88.4%28.4%64.8%1120
Freeman 70.8%44.3%44.1%1013
How that was addressed?
2005 FRLWhiteA-ARank 2019 FRLWhiteA-ARank (1,461)
(1,276)
Parsley 16.8%87%8.8%3718.7% 83%2.2%4
Ogden 27%83.5%13.7%8119.3%86.6%1.9%6
*
Gregory figures
Wrightsville 9.3%93.6%5.4%6312.9%89.4%1.3%9
are from 2016. The
Beach
school took over the
Spanish Immersion
Holly Tree 25.1%70.7%24.3%5230.3%79%6.5%58
program in 2017. In
2019, it had 36.2
Codington 13.8%86.4%11.9%1427.5%79.8%5.5%61
white students,
38.4% African-
American and
21.3% Hispanic.
Forest Hills 52.9%47.5%45.9%70695.9%22.4%56.5%1290
The free/reduced
lunch percentage
Gregory 41.3%48.2%49%18099.2%8.8%84%1396*
was at 99.4%
however. Its ranking
had recovered to
Snipes 88.4%28.4%64.8%112099.2%10.5%79%1386
1118 th, or the 23.5
percentile of N.C.
Freeman 70.8%44.3%44.1%101398.9%5.6%81.4%1428
elementary schools.
What just happened?
The school board’s response to inequity was to create “magnet
schools” without adequate planning, leadership or trust-building
Parents –most of them white -were able to choose schools, and
they did. In 2016, Codington and Eaton had 180 and 172
kindergarten applications, respectively –about twice the capacity.
Snipes and Freeman had nine and four.
Forest Hills was at the 44.7 percentile in 2005. It dropped to 11.7
by 2019
Snipes was at the 12.2 percentile in 2005. By 2012, that had fallen
to 0.9th percentile. In 2019, it was 5.1
Freeman was at the 20.6 percentile in 2005. In 2019, it was 2.3
Gregory’s percentile, 85.9 in 2005, dropped to 2.0 by 2016.
Let’s look a little deeper
2018 Can’t Teacher Teachers Teachers 2018 Ready for 2019 Ready for
read at turnover0-3 yrs10+ yrsKindergartenKindergarten
grade
Parsley 13%9.9%12.2%61%78.4%71.8%
Ogden 11%8.4%15%65%72.3%69.3%
Wrightsville 12%14.1%9.1%55%91.3%91.7%
Beach
Holly Tree 17%6.2%8.8%58.8%57.9%85.2%
Codington 22%2.8%5.9%67.6%77.8%88.6%
Let’s look a little deeper
2018 Can’t Teacher Teachers Teachers 2018 Ready for 2019 Ready for
read at turnover0-3 yrs10+ yrsKindergartenKindergarten
grade
Parsley 13%9.9%12.2%61%78.4%71.8%
Ogden 11%8.4%15%65%72.3%69.3%
Wrightsville 12%14.1%9.1%55%91.3%91.7%
Beach
Holly Tree 17%6.2%8.8%58.8%57.9%85.2%
Codington 22%2.8%5.9%67.6%77.8%88.6%
Forest Hills 63%21.7%46.9%31.3%32.1%18.2%
Gregory 48%18%40.9%27.3%21.6%63.5%
Snipes 70%21.5%21.6%29.7%38.1%n/a
Freeman 70%20.4%33.3%25%25.5%
Let’s look a little deeper
2018 Can’t Teacher Teachers Teachers 2018 Ready for 2019 Ready for
read at turnover0-3 yrs10+ yrsKindergartenKindergarten
grade
Parsley 13%9.9%12.2%61%78.4%71.8%
Ogden 11%8.4%15%65%72.3%69.3%
Wrightsville 12%14.1%9.1%55%91.3%91.7%
Beach
Holly Tree 17%6.2%8.8%58.8%57.9%85.2%
Codington 22%2.8%5.9%67.6%77.8%88.6%
Forest Hills 63%21.7%46.9%31.3%32.1%18.2%
Gregory 48%18%40.9%27.3%21.6%63.5%
Snipes 70%21.5%21.6%29.7%38.1%n/a
Freeman 70%20.4%33.3%25%25.5%4.3%
MIDDLE SCHOOLS
The heart of redistricting
2005 FRLWhiteA-A2006
Rank
(598)
Roland-36.7%69.9%25.8%125
Grise
Myrtle 33.1%71.5%21.4%102
Grove
Noble 32%70.7%26.3%119
Williston 59.2%39.8%52.1%386*
The heart of redistricting
2005 FRLWhiteA-A2006 2019 FRLWhiteA-ARank (723)***
Rank
(598)
Roland-36.7%69.9%25.8%12536.4%74.3%6.5%133
Grise
Myrtle 33.1%71.5%21.4%10248.8%58.5%17.3%213
Grove
Noble 32%70.7%26.3%11935.2%72.8%10.7%80
Williston 59.2%39.8%52.1%386*
The heart of redistricting
2005 FRLWhiteA-A2006 2019 FRLWhiteA-ARank (723)***
Rank
(598)
Roland-36.7%69.9%25.8%12536.4%74.3%6.5%133
Grise
Myrtle 33.1%71.5%21.4%10248.8%58.5%17.3%213
Grove
Noble 32%70.7%26.3%11935.2%72.8%10.7%80
Williston 59.2%39.8%52.1%386*97.1%**20.1%49.7%643
The heart of redistricting
2005 FRLWhiteA-A2006 2019 FRLWhiteA-ARank (723)***
Rank
(598)
Roland-36.7%69.9%25.8%12536.4%74.3%6.5%133
Grise
Myrtle 33.1%71.5%21.4%10248.8%58.5%17.3%213
Grove
Noble 32%70.7%26.3%11935.2%72.8%10.7%80
Williston 59.2%39.8%52.1%386*97.1%**20.1%49.7%643
* This ranking for Williston was at the 35.5 percentile. By 2019, the ranking stood at the 11.1 percentile
** The average FRL percentage for the six public middle schools besides Williston: 46.1%
*** 2019 rankings for NH County Middle Schools: Murray 59, Noble 80, Roland-Grise 133, Trask 195, Myrtle
Grove 213, Holly Shelter 371, Williston … 643
Where was D.C. Virgo?
•The redistricting of 2010 led to it being woefully under-
enrolled –and it closed in May 2011. Reopened in 2012 as
D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy
•Closed in 2018 –still under-enrolled –and ceased to be a
New Hanover County public school. In July 2018, opened
as one of five “lab” schools in N.C. Operated by UNCW
•Last year: 86.4% African-American; 6.2% White
•90.9% Free/Reduced lunch
•Ranked 1377 th(1461) among elementary schools and
680 th(723) among middle schools. Less than 6 th percentile
•Incoming 6 th graders ready at grade level: 6.5%
Did it help the district overall?
New Hanover County School DistrictRank Percentile
200649 (157)68.8
2019
Did it help the district overall?
New Hanover County School DistrictRank Percentile
200649 (157)68.8
201991 (235)61.3
What did we learn?
•According to the UNC Center for Civil Rights in 2016, which studied NHCS,
28 of 42 schools are “racially imbalanced.”
•In 10 years, Gregory went from outperforming the district’s overall end-of-
grade success to falling behind the county average by 20 percentage points
•Environment created where schools score in the 30s on EOG tests and less
than 5% of incoming students at one school were ready for kindergarten
•Educational research consistently finds that racially balanced schools not
only lifts students from lower-income, minority homes, but has no impact on
the majority
•U.S. Dept. of Education notes: “where schools lack a diverse student body
or are racially isolated (i.e. are composed of students of one race) they may
fail to provide the full panoply of benefits that K-12 schools can offer.”
Where do we go from here?
•Solution is not at simple as moving white kids
into inner-city schools
•“Integration” can mean different things to
different populations
•Is creating the “bubble” the answer?
•Need to educate ourselves, find out what
parents in our downtown schools actually want
and what teachers actually need
•And we need leadership with the courage to redistrict in a way that fairly
balances our children’s needs