OPINION - Guest writer

GARY NEWTON: A dual system

LRSD perpetuated duality

We agree with Baker Kurrus. Little Rock has a "dual system" of education, and we concur that the "state of Arkansas must now address and ameliorate this duality."

But it's not open-enrollment public charter schools versus the Little Rock School District (LRSD) that Mr. Kurrus described in his comments to the state Board of Education. It's the intra-district duality he and his colleagues created and/or perpetuated in his 12 years on the school board and one as superintendent.

Arkansas had 1,052 public schools in 2018-19. Nine percent of the state's enrollment was designated as "Gifted and Talented (GT)." But in LRSD, seven of 40 schools were in the state's Top 10 for highest percentage of GT students: 1. LRSD Pinnacle View Middle (46 percent), 2. LRSD Forest Heights STEM K-8 (43 percent), 3. Hope Academy (42 percent), 4. LRSD Pulaski Heights Middle (41 percent), 5. LRSD Parkview High (41 percent), 6. LRSD Mann Middle (37 percent), 7. LRSD Dunbar Middle (37 percent), 8. LISA Academy (37 percent), 9. LRSD Central High (37 percent), 10. Alma High (32 percent).

Nineteen of 40 LRSD schools (48 percent) were in the state's top 10 percent; 26 of 40 LRSD schools (65 percent) were in the state's top 18 percent; 33 of 40 LRSD schools (83 percent) were above the state average for "Gifted and Talented."

Why? Because being designated "Gifted and Talented" at any time in a student's K-8 journey is a free pass to Central High and other district magnets with transportation, no matter where the student lives in the district.

Don't believe it? Fulbright (29 percent), Roberts (27 percent), and Terry (16 percent) elementary schools feed Pinnacle View Middle (46 percent), the district's largest middle school and the state's highest enrollment of GT students. The largest high school attendance zone for Pinnacle View is Hall. However, with a GT designation, students residence-zoned for Hall get a golden ticket to Central.

How else could one explain a middle school's having a GT percentage 17, 19 and 30 points higher than the elementary schools feeding it? Why were so many of these allegedly "Gifted and Talented" middle school students not identified in elementary school instead of just before they entered high school?

This is also the reason the LRSD status quo has long refused to provide a proximate high school to receive students from the district's largest elementary and largest middle school. It would disrupt the flow of preferred students to Central, 13.1 miles away.

And if that wasn't enough duality, Mr. Kurrus and those that preceded and followed him created and/or perpetuated the most inequitable, non-contiguous, gerrymandered attendance zone for a public school in Arkansas--Central High's.

If it were eStem's or LISA's residence-based attendance zone, there would rightfully be outrage. But neither eStem nor LISA nor any other open-enrollment public charter school in Arkansas has an attendance zone. All are admitted. If there is more demand than supply, a blind lottery is held.

That's a far cry from how intra-district schools of choice are managed in LRSD, where schools choose students, not the other way around.

According to the district's own Community Blueprint, Central had both the largest enrollment (2,466) and was the most over capacity (+31 percent) of any school in the district. Parkview High, which has no attendance zone and chooses a majority of its students, was at 98 percent capacity. By contrast, Fair (69 percent), Hall (59 percent) and McClellan (51 percent) were 31 to 49 points under capacity.

Further, even after a Freedom of Information Act request, no one at the district could produce rules/policies/communications for annually busing over 300 Hispanic students out of their neighborhood schools to Hall High solely because they have Hispanic surnames.

Little Rock's "dual system" is not and never has been district versus charter. For the past 30 years, it's been Central/Parkview versus Fair/Hall/McClellan and the corrupt, inequitable, and preferential K-8 admissions system that feeds them.

"[A]ny dual system, which causes the isolation, concentration and segregation of the most needy students will not stand."--Baker Kurrus

We could not agree more.

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Gary Newton is CEO of Arkansas Learns, the voice of business for excellent education options for all students, and a resident of and taxpayer in the Little Rock School District. He may be reached at gnewton@ArkansasLearns.org and followed @ArkansasLearns.

Editorial on 09/13/2019

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