EDUC160 Urban education- Busing
Group Case Study: Busing Start Assignment Due Tuesday by 11:59pm Points 50 Submitting a text entry box or a file upload Available Jan 22 at 12am – Mar 12 at 11:59pm You will be working with your assigned team/group to engage with the issues and content for this case. Your team will be expected to address the content issues and you will present this material in a jointly created video presentation. Note: To help facilitate your ability to communicate with each other and to work effectively as a team, your group/team will be able to use our assigned class meeting time for discussions. If you should choose, I can place your group in a break-out room for your dialogue and problem-solving process. At the same time, your group may choose to arrange your own group Zoom session as an option. Whichever approach is chosen, please note that all team members must avail themselves to work with their team/group. It is insufficient to state that there was no time to meet given that this class has an allotted meeting time according to your enrollment in this course. Narratives about Teaching Urban Students “Some of the most common narratives about urban schools relate to education reform and the need to improve the educational outcomes of our nation’s most ‘at risk’ youth. It is widely acknowledged that urban schools are under-performing and racial and economic achievement gaps are frustratingly persistent. It is also understood, though not always explicitly stated, that a conversation about urban schools is really a conversation about kids of color from low income communities {sic}. When considered jointly, these two evidence-based facts facilitate a socially constructed conclusion that kids of color from poor communities are the reason why urban schools need major reform.” (Whitaker, 2020, p. 294). Whittaker (2020) further states, Thirty-one percent of public school students in the U.S. attend an urban school. Within those 15 million students, 71% are from minoritized racial and ethnic groups, 14% are English language learners (ELL), and 40% attend a high poverty school (U.S. Department of Education 2017a). At least 58% of urban students in 4th and 8th grades scored below proficient in reading in 2017, and at least 51% scored below proficient in math (U.S. Department of Education 2018a, b). Teaching these students is a workforce of about 1,180,000, of whom 70% are white, 32% are Hispanic, 11% are black, and 4% are Asian (U.S. Department of Education 2017b). Urban teachers have the same level of education as suburban, town, and rural teachers, though they enter the profession through different pathways. Urban teachers, particularly those in charter schools, are more like to have alternative licenses than teachers in other geographical locales (Jacob 2007; Ng 2003). This difference is driven in part by the higher numbers of teachers of color in urban schools who often earn their credentials through alternative routes (U.S. Department of Education 2016), and in part by staffing shortages that necessitate frequent and fast hiring, even if teachers are not fully licensed (Dee and Goldhaber 2017). Whitaker, M.C. (2020). Us and Them: Using Social Identity Theory to Explain and Re‑envision Teacher-Student Relationships in Urban Schools. The Urban Review, 52, 691-707 . Simulation Paper (Busing) You work as a para-educator, teacher, guidance counselor, or administrator at Rio Bueno High School (RBHS). RBHS is a large comprehensive high school in a mid-sized urban district (the district serves 60,000 students) in California. While RBHS is currently racially integrated, it is located in a predominantly low-income area, that is racially and ethnically diverse within the district. In fact, the percentage of low-income students of color at RBHS has been increasing over the past five years. Rio Bueno High School Demographic Shifts, 2015-2020 This table shares data about the number of students who live in poverty based on the number of students who receive free and reduced price lunch. F/R WHITE BLACK HISPANIC ASIAN PRICED LUNCH 2015 45% 40% 10% 5% 45% 2020 20% 45% 25% 10% 70% Recent disaggregated data on RBHS’ graduation rates also indicated that the number of students of color graduating has always been lower than that of RBHS’ White students and that these numbers have been steadily decreasing (for almost all groups) for the past five years. Rio Bueno High School Graduation Rates by Race, 2015-2020 WHITE BLACK HISPANIC ASIAN 2015 75% 60% 45% 80% 2020 70% 50% 40% 80% RBHS isn’t the only institution facing changes. School board elections six months ago resulted in a significant shift in the membership of the board, including a new school board president. One of the board’s first acts was to request a thorough financial analysis of the costs and benefits of busing[1]. The district has a decades-old busing policy to promote integration, although there’s profound local disagreement about whether busing is effective in this regard. Some argue that busing is essential to overcome the residential segregation characteristic of neighborhoods across the city, issues that are still present after the Brown I (1954) and Brown II (1955) decisions. They cite Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg (1970) as central to the decision-making process. Neighborhood schools would be segregated schools, they claim. Others argue that the lack of neighborhood schools itself contributes to “white flight”[2] and middle-class flight from the city into neighboring towns and school districts. These advocates warn that continued busing is reducing in-district diversity and depressing the potential for integrated schools. Still, others maintain that Rio Bueno’s demographics do reflect that the school is integrated. This comment was vehemently opposed, suggesting that the white enrollment remains problematic and that if trends persist, it is dishonest to call the school integrated, particularly with a majority of ethnic minority students. One speaker stated in a Board meeting: “Have we not learned anything from the Keys case?” — Keyes v. School District No. 1 (1973). The results of the financial audit were made public last month. The board president, backed by most of her colleagues, has held multiple press conferences highlighting the high cost of busing students around the city. At one recent public forum, she declared, “Busing imposes a financial burden on the district. Skyrocketing fuel prices, salaries and benefits for hundreds of unionized bus drivers and monitors, and an aging fleet of buses with rising maintenance costs all conspire to make busing students across the city an unsustainable proposition. The vast majority of students live within walking distance of a school in their neighborhood. Our district’s outdated busing policy is taking away from other more important educational needs and is no longer sustainable for the district.” Picking up on the new board’s opposition, a local and active environmental group has staged protests outside of the district office, claiming environmental harm from the continued busing policy. Several other public debates and forums have been fueled by intense opposition to the district’s current desegregation policy. As a result of these combined pressures and the decision from Parents Involved (2006), the district has decided it will no longer bus students to achieve racial balancing. Furthermore, the Board maintains that the whole issue of racial segregation is no longer pertinent in this age because we live in a post-racial and post-civil rights era. This Board position has drawn major outrage from varied community groups and civil rights advocates who maintain that the Board has turned a blind eye to the racial and economic issues shaping the Rio Bueno school and community. They contend that the financial support within the district reflects issues raised in Serrano v. Priest (1971) and San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1993) and that the district has yet to remedy the economic deficiencies that exist within their district. Additionally, opponents of the Board’s view hold that the issues stemming from historic segregation severely impact the ability of Rio Bueno to attract and maintain quality teachers who are best able to address the academic needs of students there. These opponents believe that Board members are out of touch largely due to the fact that many of the Board members do not live directly in the community where the Rio Bueno school is located. In order to keep the school diverse, the district has proposed turning RBHS into a math/science magnet school. The Board states that additional money would be allocated for updating science labs and training math and science teachers. Admission to the school would be competitive, based on students’ middle school test scores, grades in math and science, and an essay. Evidence from other districts shows that the school is likely to attract White, Asian, and middleclass parents if this happens, but that poor and Black and Hispanic kids are less likely to apply and gain admission and thus may end up being sent elsewhere. A group of local parents has organized against the district’s proposed “magnet” plan[3]. This group is dedicated to “keep Bueno for the neighborhood!” and is arguing that maintaining diversity is less important than serving the kids who already attend the school, and who live near it. Furthermore, they feel that the math/science magnet school will, as evidence suggests, alienate poor and Black and Hispanic kids, who are less likely to apply and gain admission, and that research supports this trend. They argue that the district should put its resources — especially those saved by eliminating busing — toward serving these students and creating a strong community school. One parent was recently quoted in the local newspaper as saying those district officials should “stop trying to direct money to serve the most privileged kids. Let’s start serving those who need it, and who have stuck with Bueno. Let’s build a strong academic program that is rooted in an understanding of our neighborhood and that meets our children’s needs.” A third group, composed of a coalition of business leaders and education reform activists, is arguing in favor of turning all schools in the district into “in-district charter schools.” They suggest that RBHS and one other large, comprehensive high school in the district could serve as models or pilots for the program. They want to break up RBHS into four small schools: one focused on math/science, one on health careers, one on vocational education careers, and the last as a public service academy. The other pilot high school, which is across town and in a very affluent community within the district, would also turn into four small schools: a performing arts school, a “classical studies” school, a school focused on “international business” and a “world language academy school”. Parents from across the city would be invited to apply for admission to these schools. Admission would be by lottery[4], but students already attending RBHS and incoming students living nearby, would be given preference. It is suggested that students must indicate their top three preferences for enrollment in the varied charter schools (since placement is not guaranteed). Moreover, students should be required to submit an essay explaining which school they want to attend and why. A group of local parents, many of whom are recent immigrants from varied Latin American countries and Southeast Asian countries, along with civil rights activists, have argued that the varied proposals would detrimentally impact their children due to the unique and specific needs that these communities bring to the school and community. Further, they contend that any proposal brought forth must consider the important issues from the Lau v. Nichols (1974), and the culturally relevant needs of diverse student groups, such as the Hmong, Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Pacific Islanders. As a member of RBHS’ faculty/staff, you will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Board’s position and the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal set forth by the varied constituent groups. Varied scholarly articles raise concerns that are relevant to each of these ideas. Next, your team will justify which of the above approaches you would support and why? Or, would your team advocate a different approach altogether? If so, why? Or, would your team create some hybrid of the varied approaches? If so, why? Make sure that your group’s decisions are theory, concept, legal, and data-driven. Make sure that your team tells me what I do not already know, not what I know! That said, do not merely regurgitate what I have shared with you in this simulation. Dig deep to connect more broadly to the scholarship to help inform your decisions. You will create a PowerPoint to support your decision (no more than 15 slides). You must use evidence from at least ten sources to support your decision-making. There should be a slide that definitively informs the audience of your ultimate decision. At least five of your sources must be scholarly. Make sure to include a cover page and a reference page (in accordance with APA) for your PowerPoint (not included in your slide total). Your group will present your PowerPoint in the form of a pre-recorded Zoom presentation (or another medium as approved by the instructor) to address the issues within this simulation. Each presenter should aim for a minimum of 3-4 minutes in your oral contribution to the video presentation. Each group member must upload the presentation link into their own Canvas account for grading (see the simulation). Map of Sacramento County The area circled above in blue constitutes the school boundary where many students live who attend Rio Bueno; the school is circled in aqua. The red circle above indicates the total area serviced by the school district. The circled area in purple has been identified as one of the possible comprehensive pilot high schools for the proposed plan. The black outlined area has been slotted as the location for the proposed small schools: a performing arts school, a “classical studies” school, a school focused on “international business” and a “world language academy school”. The area in black currently has one high school. Notes: [1] Desegregation busing in the United States (also known as forced busing or simply busing) is the practice of assigning and transporting students to schools in such a manner as to redress prior racial segregation of schools, or to overcome the effects of residential segregation on local school demographics [2] The move of white city-dwellers to the suburbs to escape the influx of minorities. [3] Magnet schools arose as a method to aid in desegregating schools. School systems hoped to attract white students by offering enhanced programs in inner-city areas (Orfield, Frankenberg, and Lee, The Resurgence of School Segregation, 2003, p. 18) [4] Lottery procedures are often used for admission to charter and magnet schools. In a school lottery, admission is determined through a random number lottery system. Parents must fill out an application to the school by a particular deadline. Rubric for Simulations Total score ____ multiplied by 2 = _______. Needs Development Adequate Excellent/Superior 1 3 5 Criteria Engages the task in a manner that appropriately considers and addresses the simulation’s issues. Supports ideas with logical, specific, and substantial information (e.g., evidence from 1 3 5 1 3 5 1 3 5 1 3 5 material to support decision-making). Presents viewpoints in a manner that provides a clear and evidencedbased rationale for decision-making and conclusion. Appropriately utilizes required resources as well as evidence which reflects an analysis of the issues in accordance with scholarly work. Adherence to Academic English, APA rules, and writing conventions. Additional Resources The video below discusses Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg (1970). Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971) To learn more about Keyes v. School District No. 1 (1973), you may wish to view the video below. The Keyes Case To learn more about the significance of the Parents Involved case, see the mini-lecture below: Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School D… D… The video below discusses different types of K-12 schools. You may wish to view full-screen. Understanding the Types of Schools in K-12 Education (cha… (cha… The video below discusses Serrano vs. Priest (1971). You may wish to view full-screen. EdSource at 40: Serrano vs. Priest The video below provides a brief illustration of the Boston school busing crisis after Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971). You may wish to view full-screen. Boston Busing Crisis 1970s The video below provides background on Freeman vs. Pitts (1992). You may wish to view full-screen. Freeman v. Pitts | School Integration The video below discusses Lau vs. Nichols (1974). You may wish to view full-screen. Lau vs. Nichols: A Landmark Case for ELL Education
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