Five years ago this week, a parent group asked the federal government to investigate whether a Gwinnett County program would stunt the educational progress of minority students and students with disabilities.
Today, that investigation is still going on, and those who filed the complaint say they're getting little information about it.
“They’ve never interviewed us. They’ve never asked us for anything,” said Marlyn Tillman, co-founder of the Gwinnett Parent Coalition to Dismantle the School to Prison Pipeline. “I can’t tell you the amount of frustration this brings us.”
U.S. Education Department officials asked for more patience.
“The length of time that it takes to resolve a case depends on a number of factors, including the number and complexity of the issues. Many of (the Office of Civil Rights) cases involve complex legal issues and are very fact-intensive,” Dorie Nolt, the department’s communications director said via email. “OCR’s goal is to ensure all investigations are conducted in a thorough, consistent manner as quickly as possible.”
Federal officials would not discuss the status of the investigation because it hasn’t been completed.
In 2011, Gwinnett and Forsyth counties agreed to participate in a new state initiative called Investing in Education Excellence. Gwinnett wanted to gain greater flexibility in teaching to help it exceed state and federal education standards. The Gwinnett coalition believed the school district was setting lower goals for minority students in the program.
A Gwinnett spokeswoman referred questions about the investigation to the U.S. Education Department, but said the initiative was productive and noted that more school districts, such as DeKalb, have chosen to use that model, now called a strategic waiver system.
“It allowed us to have greater flexibility,” said Sloan Roach. “With that, we had greater accountability for student performance.”
Gwinnett school leaders have bristled at any suggestion that they are not working to help students with disabilities or those who aren’t white. In 2014, Gwinnett was the co-recipient of the Broad Prize, a nationally-acclaimed honor that awards a large school district for its efforts to close the achievement gap between white and non-white students. Gwinnett won the award in 2010. Coalition leaders have been dubious of such awards.
“The (achievement) gaps have not changed at all,” Tillman said.
Many educators have been concerned about racial disparities in goals set for students or access to programs for the academically gifted. A 2014 Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found white students were more likely to be enrolled in such programs in Georgia.
State data support and rebut the parent coalition’s claims.
State data also show performance targets and proficiency rates for state assessments were greater for white students than for black and Hispanic students.
The data, however, do show the percentage of black and Hispanic students graduating from Gwinnett’s high schools has gotten closer to the graduation rate of white students. For the 2012-13 school year, the graduation rate for white students was 27 percentage points higher than Hispanic students. For the 2014-15 school year, the gap was 22 about percentage points.
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