The future of Education in Durham: Charter Schools, Traditional, or Virtual Schools?

Durham Public Schools (DPS) faces a problem of white flight - the phenomenon of upper and middle class whites moving out of cities and into suburbs. In 2015, only 18 percent of Durham Public School students were White. In 2010, 20 percent of DPS’ students were white. According to the 2015 US Community Census, Durham[CC1] is 52 percent white, up from 40 percent in 2010 (Quick Census, 2015). At this time of decrease in White students enrolled in Durham Public Schools, there was an increase in enrollment in charter schools, with White students being the majority race. In 2015, there were 14 charter schools in Durham, NC. During this same period in 2015, white students made up 54 - 67 percent of the student population in four Durham charter schools. This competition of school choice is leading to school segregation. Segregation is divisive in social context. This is pointed out when Billings, Deming, and Rockff (2016), stated that explicit efforts may be necessary if policymakers wish to prevent a widening of racial and economic inequality in the wake of increases in school segregation. Out of 156,149 households in Durham, only 49,303 households have children (Home, 2010).

Why is White flight a problem for Durham Public Schools? The obvious symptom is that the school district is less diverse. A lesser symptom is the harm inflicted by school segregation. Durham’s mission is to provide all students with an outstanding education that motivates them to reach their full potential .... Racially and socioeconomically isolated schools are strongly related to an array of factors that limit educational opportunities and outcomes. These include less experienced and less qualified teachers, high levels of teacher turnover, less successful peer groups, and inadequate facilities and learning materials (Flaxman, 2013). As white and middleclass flight occurs what is being left behind in some DPS schools are students that are academically, socially, and economically challenged. Behavior research shows that children from impoverished homes develop psychiatric disturbances and maladaptive social functioning at a greater rate than their affluent counterparts do (McCoy, Firck, Loney, & Ellis, 1999). The proportion of DPS students that qualify for free or reduced-price lunch increased about 4 percentage points in 2015, to 68 percent which equates to 22,780 students (DPS, 2015). A weak performing school system loses its ability to be marketable in a global economic community. Strong school systems attract business that bring jobs and new residents to work in jobs created by new companies and a thriving economic community that can strengthen a school system ( Berger & Fisher, 2013). Segregated schools also bring social and civil unrest. The Delaware branch of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Community Legal Aid Society, filed a complaint, citing data showing charter schools are almost entirely racially identifiable by school performance (Sirota, 2014).

To address resegregation of schools DPS is working to improve its brand in the academic community. It spends more local money per pupil, $4700, compared to Wake County’s $2400 and Mecklenburg County’s $2400 (N&O, 2015). An interview with Administrator One, an assistant principal for DPS, revealed that DPS has an aggressive mentoring program for new teachers. Durham has an aggressive recruiting program to identify, attract, and hire quality teachers. But to best explain DPS’ efforts to improve the Durham Public School system, Dr. L’Homme, Superintendent of DPS said in August of 2016, “This year, a leaner central office is reorganizing itself to prioritize spending on the classroom. We are training our schools to provide a more orderly and equitable school environment where every student will feel welcomed and respected, and where academic excellence will be an expectation for each child. We are providing enhanced literacy support to high-needs schools, and we are reevaluating our use of classroom assessments to ensure that they provide useful data to our teachers without detracting from classroom instruction.” Hopefully, DPS will be able to better compete with other learning models in the future.

References
Bryk, A. S., Gomez, L. M., Grunow, A., & LeMahieu, P. G. (2015). Learning to improve: How America’s schools can get better at getting better. Cambridge, MA: Third Printing.
UCPS (2014-2017). Union County Public Schools: Strategic Plan. Retrieved from https://webcp.ucps.k12.nc.us/forms_manager/documents/99/ucps_strategic_plan.pdf
http://www.dpsnc.net/cms/lib011/NC01911152/Centricity/Domain/77/Magnet%20Schools%20Review%204.20.16.pdf
http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/education/school-segregation-race-americas-demographic-future-update-recent-research
http://www.bullcityrising.com/2016/01/scrutinizing-our-schools-how-does-durhams-school-spending-compare-to-other-districts.html
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/fbs/resources/data/
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