Follow-Up Statement from Meeting with Superintendent Anthony Tata

For More Information:    Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, President, 919-394-8137

Mrs. Amina Turner, Executive Director, 919-682-4700

Atty. Jennifer Marsh, Legal Redress Coordinator, 919-682-4700

The NAACP Meets with Superintendent Tata to Continue Discussion on the Important Connections Between Socio-Economic Diversity, Resources and Student Achievement

The NC NAACP is pleased to continue our discussions with Wake County Schools Superintendent Tata.  The framework for this discussion was the fact that socio-economic diversity and resources are key factors in fostering student achievement and that racially identifiable, high poverty schools are the antithesis of that goal. There is hardly any argument among scholars as to whether or not diversity and resources are two critical elements for student achievement in public schools and that resegregated schools undermine any efforts to lift student achievement for all children. 

A recent study by the Brookings Institute establishes that the number one cause of urban economic decline is a failure to deal with segregation of public schools. The twenty most depressed urban areas in the U.S. are also the ones with the most segregated school systems. The recent Civil Rights audit from the US Department of Justice said that Black students are two times more likely to be placed in racially-identifiable, high-poverty and under-resourced schools.  

We believe Wake County had a great school system with national respect before a band of regressive school board ideologues began to dismantle it. However, we still believe thoughtful people who put all our children first and who want high-quality, constitutional, well-funded, diverse education for every child -- as opposed to those driven by narrow partisan politics -- can always find common ground.

In the course of our meeting yesterday morning regarding Wake County assignment plans, after an extensive review presented by Superintendent Tata and his staff, it was clear that there are still many unanswered questions and unresolved issues and contradictions. These include: 

1. The percentage goals of minority, poor and low-performing students in each school have not been clarified.
2. The seat availability for parents who choose to send their students to magnet and so-called "achievement choice" schools is not clear.
3. We do not know how the school systems plans to address the issue of access for parents who may not have access to the necessary resources to wade through the online process to make choices for their children's school assignment.
4. There is still no urban school district operating a so-called "choice" plan that has maintained greater success than the socio-economic diversity and Healthy Schools assignment plan that irrefutably made Wake County a national model for student achievement.
5. There is still no data or grid to show how the current recommended plan will decrease or increase the number of racially-identifiable, high-poverty schools in Wake County.
6. There is still no analysis that truly shows that the partial plans presented thus far are empirically better than the socio-economic diversity/Healthy Schools assignment plan.
7. It is still not clear whether the Wake County School System administration recognizes and understands that the high-poverty schools that came to be under the old plan were not a result of the plan but rather a result of unprecedented growth in numbers of students in Wake County.
8. Considering the fact that Chairman Ron Margiotta has already stated his commitment to a pure neighborhood school plan, there is no assurance that the majority of the board will adopt all of the final recommendations of the plans that Superintendent Tata and his team are proposing. This will severely undermine his stated goals for student achievement.

The truth is the success of this plan will only be seen through a backend review, which means by the time we know whether it works or not, Wake County could have allowed ultra-conservative ideologues to totally dismantle a plan that had marked and noted success and replaced it with a plan that takes Wake County schools backwards. Regardless of his intention, we are led to believe to believe that Superintendent Tata's hands are tied by the fact that the Wake County School Board disallowed socio-economic diversity to even be considered, even though the research says it is a necessary component of building a student achievement model and is required by law.  

We in the NAACP will continue to critique the process going forward. We reserve the right to challenge any policy it if we believe it does not meet the standards of the law and sound research.  Furthermore we believe that the citizens of Wake County need to fully engage in the upcoming election because ultimately it is elected members of the school board that will implement student assignment policy and determine the future of educational opportunity in Wake County.  

Additional Agenda Items Provided by Superintendent Tata

We are pleased the Superintendent has taken the initiative to recruit high-quality, well-trained African American teachers for Wake County.  This is a long-standing position and public policy goal of the NAACP. While every empirical study has found that excellent, well-trained and experienced teachers-no matter their color-are key factors in student learning, developing a teaching staff and school leadership team that provides a strong African-American and Latino presence in each of our schools is obviously desirable.  It should also be noted that recruiting African-American and minority teachers is not the panacea for dealing with the challenges created by racially identifiable, high-poverty and re-segregated schools. In fact, the lack of diversity in the classrooms tends to undermine recruitment and retention of high-quality teachers. The goal of teacher diversity and integrated schools are inextricably tied together.

Those familiar with North Carolina's discriminatory actions against Black educators when the 145 School Districts finally were forced to obey the law, more than 17 years after segregated schools were found illegal, know we have a long way to go to repair the wholesale betrayal of Black educators here.  Instead of reconciling Black and White teaching and administrative staffs on equal terms, the White School Boards across the State, (with a couple of exceptions) chose to punish Black educators for their years of sacrifice and love to their students.  African American families were forced to sacrifice them. The "merging" of the dual school systems eliminated an entire generation of school principals and a majority of Black teachers.  North Carolina had 209 African American secondary school principals in 1963; only three in 1973.  By 1972, more than 3,000 Black teachers had been fired, or 21% of the expected Black teachers for that year.   Although 30% of North Carolina's public school students were Black in 1970, there was not a single Black superintendent over any of the 145 school districts and 60% of these districts had no Black administrators. (See, David Cecelski, Along Freedom Road: the Hyde County, North Carolina School Boycott and the Fate of Black Schools in the South, UNC Press, 1995, page 7-8.)  Black educators, who were the backbone of the NAACP for most of its life, were often fired if it was discovered they were NAACP members during these decades of disrespect.  This history still haunts our Black educators and the families that had come to depend on them.  We will not soon forget it.    

So today, we must both acknowledge these injuries our parents suffered and, at the same time, look clear-eyed toward the challenges that now face our students and teachers.  Today we must be sure we take the right path, the path based on sound research and the constitution.  Today we must work together to create the best learning conditions for our students.  Of course, it would be a good thing to staff every school with a diverse team of educators. Excellence and diversity are two sides of the same coin.  You can't have one without the other. The NAACP has always had the same demand: diverse, high-quality, well-paid, unionized teacher corps with smaller classes.

The Superintendent's insight about the importance of recruiting high-quality African American teachers, which is a long-standing public policy and legal initiative of the NAACP, is welcomed and we have offered our assistance in this matter.  

Rev. Dr. William J Barber, II, President, NC NAACP

Mrs. Amina Turner, Executive Director, NC NAACP

Rev. Dr. Nancy Petty, Pastor, Pullen Memorial Baptist Church

Professor Irving Joyner, NCCU School of Law

Attorney Al McSurely, Communications Chair, NC NAACP

Attorney Jennifer Marsh, Legal Redress Coordinator, NC NAACP

Rev. Dr. Earl Johnson, Pastor, Martin Street Baptist Church

Charles Upchurch, President, Wendell-Wake NAACP

Mary Perry, District 10 Director, NC NAACP