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DeKalb County School System, GA

 BREAKING NEWS: Status - Ongoing and Active
As of 7/23/2010, this case is rigorously being reviewed and analyzed by the Office of Civil Rights in the United States Department of Education.

Discrimination Complaint Filed Against Dekalb County Schools - Dekalb, GA
 

Purposeful Discrimination...

THE BOTTOM LINE
 Race discrimination is a violation of the Civil Rights Act.

  The way high quality educational programs are implemented and accessed in Dekalb County overwhelmingly negatively impacts Black students while overwhelmingly positively favoring White students.

This we believe is Purposeful Race Discrimination.

 Overall, Dekalb County School System determines where programs are placed. Dekalb County School System determines who has access to the programs. Lastly, Dekalb County School System determines how the educational programs are access.

Simply put, in the Dekalb County School System,  High Quality Academic programs known as Magnet High Achievers and IB programs are at a current ratio of 7 on the Northside of the County to 2 on the Southside of the county.

The Dekalb County School System attendance areas of the IB and Magnet High Achievers programs on the North end of the County, are overwhelmingly predominantly White.  The areas absent of access to the programs are overwhelmingly Black, which are on the South end of the County.

Additionally, the way Dekalb County School System determines access to the programs are based on priority being given to the home attendance area students in the case of the IB programs, which has a 6 to 1 ratio. Six on the North end of the County and 1 on the South end of the County. 

There were 3 IB programs authorized in Dekalb during 2004, 2 on the North and 1 on the South Side of the County.

Since then, there has not been an IB program established on the South end of the County although an additional 4 IB programs have been established after 2004.

In reference to the Magnet High Achievers programs, which uses the lottery system, on the surface it may look as if equitable access is given.  However, it isn't.  Because of the lack of IB programs on the South end of the County and priority given to home attendees on the North end, the Kittredge and Wadsworth High Achievers' lotteries are escalated to impossible odds for Students on the South end of the County to give them a significant opportunity to access.  And again, the South end of the County's students, who are overwhelmingly predominantly Black, are negatively impacted the most.

Purposeful Race Discrimination

Race discrimination is a violation of the Civil Rights Act.
 

Educational Apartheid...

THE BOTTOM LINE

Dekalb County School System has designed a system in which the overwhelmingly predominantly Black students are kept apart from accessing High Quality education.

As a result, High Quality Education exists on the Northern end and is aloof on the Southern end.

This we believe is Educational Apartheid.

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Civil rights complaint filed against DeKalb schools

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A parent has filed a federal civil rights complaint against the DeKalb County School System, alleging discrimination against black students.

The parent and In My Shoes-The National Parent Education Center filed the complaint Friday with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

“The complaint is under evaluation to determine if the allegations are appropriate for OCR investigation and resolution,” said Jim Bradshaw, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education.

The complaint alleges DeKalb’s International Baccalaureate program for middle school students, which is for high-achievers, is geared toward white children, Bradshaw told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday.

“Specifically, the complaint alleges that during the 2009-2010 school year, only one middle school, located in the northern section of the DeKalb County School System, has an IB program,” Bradshaw said, “and, that the predominantly non-African-American students who live in that school's attendance area were given first priority to the IB program.”

The Department of Education said it hopes to evaluate the allegations by the end of the month.

School board chairman Tom Bowen and district spokesman Dale Davis said they had not received notice of the complaint.

“DeKalb is one of the most – if not the most – diverse school system in the state of Georgia,” Bowen said. “We work hard to make sure none of our policies are discriminatory in any shape, form, or fashion because we want to make sure we provide equal access to quality education for all of our students.”

The district offers the international baccalaureate program at only one of its 20 middle schools -- Shamrock Middle School, which is the northern end of the county. The complaint argues that the school caters to white students.

Georgia Department of Education enrollment figures for the current school year show that 50 percent of Shamrock Middle’s students are black, 21 percent are white, 13 percent are Hispanic and 11 percent are Asian.

Under board policy, DeKalb gives first preference to students who are in Shamrock’s attendance zone and then offers the remaining seats to other students through a lottery. Parents of students outside the attendance area must provide their own transportation.

“It’s clear cut racial discrimination,” said Phyllis Austin, founder and CEO of In My Shoes-The National Parent Education Center. “Because they don’t have any programs on south end, they should get equal access. They didn’t even put this child in the lottery. They just said you live out of zone and you can’t go there.”

The non-profit center, which works with parents across the country, filed the complaint on behalf of the DeKalb parent. Austin declined to release the complaint or identify the parent, saying the parents want to protect the identity of the child.

Bowen said the district did not select the schools with the program based on location, but the principals of those schools had expressed interest in the program. He said the district had planned to add the program to two more schools, but it was put on hold because of budget problems. The school system is facing an $88 million shortfall.

The parent filed an appeal with the school board last year, and the appeal was denied, Austin said.

“The state board of education looked at it and said the child was allowed to attend the school that meets the educational needs of the child,” said Austin, a former DeKalb and Atlanta teacher. “But the educational needs of this student are not available at their local school.”

Since the district accepts federal funds, it is obligated to provide equal services to all children, Austin said.

“It’s unbelievable that it’s 2010 and we actually have to rely on the Office of Civil Rights to get access to great education programs,” Austin said.

Board member Eugene Walker said he was unaware of the complaint but does not believe the district discriminates by race.

“Clearly we had a history of discrimination at one time, but we spent many years working to correct that and I think we have made great progress,” he told the AJC.

The international baccalaureate program requires participants to study languages and other cultures. It is also offered at three elementary schools and three high schools in DeKalb.

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1) IB is a high quality educational program.  What the IB program does is far greater than how it is described in the article.  The IB program expedites and strengthens cognitive development in the forebrain, which is responsible for logical rational reasoning and thought processes.  The High School AP Program can be comparable to the cognitive development aspect of the IB program.  However, on the elementary and middle school levels, there are no comparable programs, not even Gifted.

The school and its teachers go through rigorous training and reviewing for the IB Program.  Therefore, teacher quality increases.

It is common knowledge in the educational arena that student success increases and dropout rate decreases when quality of education increases.  For more information and where these programs are located in your area visit www.ibo.org .   For the difference between Adequate, Quality and High Quality Educational Indicators, click here...

2) IB and Gifted programs are two different programs. The IB Program is not under the State's Gifted program status.  It is a different program regulated by I.B.O.  Gifted programs are at the lower end of the High Order Thinking spectrum of cognitive development.  IB programs are at the higher end of the High Order Thinking spectrum of cognitive development.

3) The IB Program at Shamrock Middle is a program within Shamrock.  The demographics for Shamrock MS, which are quoted in AJC, are not the demographics for the IB Program.  In recent years, Shamrock has been a receiving school under NCLB.  This along with being a receiving school under the M to M program in the 90s contributed to the increased black population in Shamrock MS.  Shamrock's area is 78% white.


4) Eligibility for the Primary and Middle School IB programs is preferential based on where the child lives.  Home attendance zone students get preferential treatment.  There is no fair and equal opportunity as required under NCLB Title 1.

5) There are a total of 7 IB programs in Dekalb County 6 (3 Primary, 1 Middle and 2 High Schools) on the North Side of the County and 1 (High School) on the South Side of the County.

6) Taxpayer funded discrimination. This program is funded by DCSS, i.e. taxpayers.  Therefore, there must be equitable opportunity to access the program for all students according to Title 1.  Re:  Schools on the South end of the county were refused the IB Program by DCSS because of budget cuts.  Hence, since the implementation of IB in DCSS (for over several years), DCSS had and has a direct role in determining when and where these programs are placed.

 
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Shamrock parents, with the backing of DCSS and support of Dekalb County Residents' taxpayers' money, created an IB program within the Shamrock school to cater to a school zone area, which is overwhelmingly predominantly non-minority .

In recent years, Shamrock has been a receiving school under NCLB.  This contributed to the increased minority population in Shamrock MS.  Students in Shamrock under NCLB are not eligible for preferential treatment (below).  They live out of zone.

 This program is funded by DCSS, i.e. taxpayers.  Therefore, there must be equitable opportunity to access the program for all students according to Title 1.  Re:  Schools on the South end of the county were refused the IB Program by DCSS because of budget cuts.  Hence, since the implementation of IB in DCSS (for over several years), DCSS had and has a direct role in determining when and where these programs are placed.

This is taxpayer funded discrimination which has led to the establishment of 6 IB programs on the North and only 1 on the south.
All IB programs implemented in Dekalb County after 2004 has been established on the North End of the County and non on the South End.
 
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Dekalb County Schools:

Black 75%
White 11 %
Shamrock Area

Black 10%
White 78%
 
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I Civil Rights Violations

During the course of fighting for Student X's Educational needs, we discovered an intricate process that makes      accessing High Quality Education for students on the South end of DeKalb County, who tend to be predominantly overwhelmingly Black, nearly impossible.  Therefore, there exist a very very very high probability that 1000s of DCSS students had and currently are having their educational rights violated.

[Read More]

 
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Excerpts from the book,
From Parent to Power

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