A parent group filed a federal civil rights complaint against Gwinnett County Schools this month, alleging a contract with the state to improve student performance is discriminatory because it sets lower goals for minorities and kids with disabilities.
While the No Child Left Behind Act requires 100 percent of schools in each state meet basic performance goals by 2013-14, the Gwinnett and Forsyth County school districts have promised contractually to do even better and increase the number of students exceeding standards.
But it is the local school districts' categorizing of student goals by race and learning ability that bothers some parents.
The Gwinnett Parent Coalition to Dismantle the School to Prison Pipeline, a multicultural group, has asked federal civil rights investigators to look into Gwinnett's contract with the state Department of Education, charging that it uses years of test performance data to set lower goals for most minorities than for whites. Subgroups like African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, students with disabilities and those still learning English have different benchmarks for exceeding goals on standardized tests.
“The color of your skin does not determine whether or not you can exceed [standards] on a state test,” said Jennifer Falk, co-founder of the parent group, known as Gwinnett STOPP. "All we are doing is perpetuating historic academic inequities because we are using racial performance to create a goal.”
To meet reading/language arts goals for third-to-fifth-graders at J.A. Alford Elementary in Gwinnett, for example, 39.6 percent of white students needed to exceed standards compared with 38.4 percent of Asians; 24.9 percent of African-Americans; 17 percent of Hispanics; 13.7 percent of students with disabilities and 10.2 percent of English language learners.
Overall, 30.3 percent of students exceeded targets in the areas and 36.8 percent exceeded them in math, according to performance results released recently in a state progress report.
Forsyth uses similar demographic goals.
David Thomas, a U.S. Department of Education spokesman, said the complaint's allegations are "currently under evaluation" for a possible investigation. The Office of Civil Rights receives about 7,000 complaints annually and works with districts to help bring them into compliance when violations are found.
Gwinnett school officials said they have not received a copy of the complaint. "Once we are notified, we will ... respond accordingly," said Steve Flynt, Gwinnett's associate superintendent for school leadership.
Gwinnett STOPP is pushing to get Gwinnett's contract rewritten to ensure students are equally challenged and served with special programs.
“This differs from No Child Left Behind, where you have a common goal,” said group co-founder Marlyn Tillman. “If you take the black kids as a subgroup, they never have to get over to the performance level of where white kids are and never have to meet where the Asian kids are performing.”
The Governor's Office of Student Achievement recently evaluated Gwinnett and Forsyth's performance contracts. Nearly half of Gwinnett's participating high schools and half of Forsyth's schools (mainly at the elementary level) failed to meet first-year targets in their five-year contracts with the state. Overall, nine of 101 Gwinnett schools and 13 of 28 Forsyth schools fell short of goals.
Kathleen Mathers, executive director of the student achievement office, said she still was pleased with early results and that the districts will use the data to make improvements in weak areas.
“Forsyth is performing beautifully across the board in reading, language arts and math, with the exception of some challenges on the fifth-grade writing test. Gwinnett, has [101 participating] schools; to see that only nine missed their year one target, I think that is very promising,” Mathers said.
Gwinnett and Forsyth are Georgia’s first districts to enter into Investing in Educational Excellence contracts with the state. By 2015, all Georgia districts will have to decide whether to take on similar performance contracts or become systems made up of charter schools.
The IE2 initiative gives districts freedom from several state requirements such as seat time and class size, like charter schools. Participating schools must meet targets for three years to get their contracts renewed.
Gwinnett and Forsyth schools that fail to meet their targets will be converted into charter schools, Mathers said.
“The schools have done a phenomenal job," said Lissa Pijanowski, Forsyth's associate superintendent of academics and accountability. "From the time we started focusing on getting more students to the exceeds category, we have seen double-digit gains in performance on the [Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests] and the High School Graduation Test."
Flynt said he was pleased with progress in the exceeds category of Gwinnett schools and added that campuses will be focusing on weak areas.
While all of Forsyth's high schools met target goals, nearly half of Gwinnett's high schools didn't. Duluth, Central Gwinnett, Grayson, Meadowcreek, Mill Creek, North Gwinnett and South Gwinnett high schools fell short. The schools missed targets mainly in math, the report showed.
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