The path to a truly excellent school district
The Chapel Hill Carrboro City School District has a reputation for being one of the best in the
state. However, it is a matter of great concern that despite the efforts of many well-meaning,
hard working teachers and administrators, our district is not working well for everyone. Less
than half of our African-American, Latino, and poor students have EOG/EOC test results that
are even at grade level, and only about one third are on track to be college/career ready. This
compares to 90% of our White students testing at grade level and 85% on track to be
college/career ready. Black and Brown students are disciplined at 3-5 times the rate of their
White and Asian peers. Parents of color frequently report feeling disrespected, discouraged or
ignored by school faculty and staff. Moreover, ongoing incidents of racial insensitivity on the
part of students and teachers alike indicates that we are not preparing students well for the
multicultural, interdependent world which they will need to navigate.
We know from examples of success in our district and elsewhere in the state and in the nation
that poor students of color do not have to be inevitably destined to struggle. We know that in
schools where actions are taken to overcome implicit biases and where expectations are truly
set that students of all backgrounds will consistently succeed, then resources are allocated,
teaching strategies are updated, and time is made to ensure that broader levels of success are
indeed achieved. For example, 10-15 years ago, when one of the best school districts in the
nation-Montgomery County Public Schools in Virginia—decided to focus on closing
achievement gaps, tremendous gains were made in relatively short order. At Bain Elementary
School in suburban Charlotte, 70-75% of African American and Latino students are on track for
college/career readiness based on EOG results, up from 45-55% in 2013. At Providence High
School in the same district, 65-70% of African American and Latino students are on track to be
college / career ready. While not perfect, there are many examples of schools around the
country successfully implementing concerted efforts to do what it takes to empower children of
all backgrounds to excel.
As has been noted elsewhere, a report has been compiled by the Campaign for Racial Equity--a
coalition of Chapel Hill -Carrboro community organizations--that documents the ongoing crisis of
differential achievement and inequitable treatment in our schools. That report, entitled Equity
with Excellence, the Schools our Children Deserve, examines issues and challenges in depth
and points to key elements of recommended solutions. Recommendations include:
• setting aggressive outcome improvement goals and holding leadership accountable
• providing schools with the training and resources they need to successfully reach students of
all races and backgrounds
• systematically exploring and implementing best practices to achieve excellence for all,
including practices initiated at selected schools in our district
• making rigorous curriculum available to all
• assisting students to better understand issues of racial equity through course curriculum.
CHCCS School Board members and district leadership have expressed a desire to close
achievement gaps, and several initiatives toward this end are underway, but progress has been
slow and limited. The community coalition compiled the report on Equity with Excellence to
help the district greatly accelerate that progress. We have requested an opportunity to present
and discuss this report with the School Board in the near future. The objective is not to
disparage the district, but to cogently draw upon a broad set of resources and stakeholders to
identify strategies that will enable all of our children to achieve at their potential.
We can not consider ourselves truly excellent until families of all backgrounds are valued and
appreciated and students of color are achieving at the high levels we know is possible.
Anything short of this excellence with equity is clearly a major disservice to the many students of
color who are struggling to succeed. But continuing educational inequities are also a disservice
to the students who are being successful academically, because the disparate structures of
success reinforce the wrong lessons regarding the value of diversity and the appreciation of
cultures different from our own. On the other hand, our district has the real opportunity to break
historical patterns of inequity. We look forward to working with our newly comprised School
Board and the entire Chapel Hill-Carrboro community to help provide all of our students with
unfettered access to academic success now and full access to positive new possibilities in the
future.
Gregory McElveen
Chair, NAACP Education Committee
Note: the Campaign for Racial Equity report can be downloaded from:
https://chapelhillcarrboronaacp.wordpress.com/issues-and-committees/