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NC wrestles with crime, punishment and race in schools

A man smiling at the camera
Alvin C. Jacobs
James Ford

This article originally appeared in Ann Doss Helms' weekly education newsletter. To get the latest schools news in your inbox first, sign up for our email newsletters here.

James Ford said his heartbeat was racing and his stomach churning as the North Carolina Board of Education reviewed a report on school crime, violence and discipline last week.

Ford is a former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher who now serves on the state board. He’s also a Black man, and he was looking at the state’s data on racial disparities in discipline. In 2021-22, the short-term suspension rate for North Carolina’s Black students was roughly 304 per 1,000 — compared with 82 per 1,000 white students.

It’s a trend that has played out for years and happens across the country.

“And year after year, nothing really gets done,” Ford told his colleagues. “Assuming that all children misbehave at the same or similar rate, when you see the sort of racial disparities that you see here year after year after year after year … it assumes that either something’s wrong with the students — because that assumption that all kids misbehave at the same rate is not something that everybody believes — or there’s something wrong with the system that’s playing itself out in racial terms that are undeniable.”

That, in a nutshell, is the question behind all talk about disciplinary disparities: Do certain types of students — Blacks, males, economically disadvantaged and disabled students, for instance — simply cause more trouble than others? Or do racism and other biases warp the discipline system in ways that perpetuate harm to some children while protecting others?

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Karen Fairley, executive director of North Carolina’s Center for Safer Schools, responded by saying there are “elements of racism” behind the numbers. But Fairley, who is also Black, said another aspect is “we need to help our parents do things a little different with their children.”

John Blackburn, a relatively new board member who is white, questioned why the state even labels students by race. “If that is beneficial, I’m fine with that,” he said. But if not, “it’s very concerning to me.”

Fairley argued that the labels are beneficial in targeting solutions. The center urges the state to pump resources into helping schools become more culturally sensitive — for instance, recognizing the role extended families often play in supporting children of color and training school resource officers to be more supportive than punitive.

(Graphic: From the DPI report)

Discipline data goes deeper than ever

Board member Alan Duncan, who is white, acknowledged that there are different opinions on whether all students misbehave at similar rates. But he said that even if you believe there are racial differences in behavior, “if you break out the penalties for the exact same offense, there’s a significantly greater penalty afforded to children of color as compared to children who are white. There are endless and boundless studies that show that.”

And there’s new data from North Carolina. The General Assembly requires the Department of Public Instruction to tally criminal and violent offenses, which are not broken out by demographic, and disciplinary actions, which are. That generated a 106-page report this year, with additional spreadsheets available to download. This year the Board of Education asked DPI to produce an additional report drilling into who’s getting suspended for what type of offense.

The majority of suspensions don’t stem from students being caught with weapons and drugs or assaulting faculty, the type of thing that makes the criminal incident list. Instead, they’re for what the state calls “unacceptable behavior” — defying teachers, bullying or fighting with peers, skipping school or coming to class intoxicated, for instance. Many of those allow room for judgment calls about who’s to blame and what penalty is appropriate. The new report shows that male, Black, American Indian, economically disadvantaged and disabled students are all suspended at disproportionately high rates for unacceptable behavior.

The most common offense within that umbrella is “defiant behavior,” one that definitely relies on adult judgment. North Carolina’s Black students are almost four times as likely as white ones to be suspended for defiant behavior.

“I can’t get used to it. I will never get used to it. I’ll never not be incensed by it,” Ford told his board colleagues. “I don’t feel the sense of urgency around the true robbery of educational rights that’s taking place here.”

Checking up on charter schools

I’ve never bought the idea that charter schools are inherently better or worse than traditional public schools. My reporting and national research indicate both types span the spectrum from excellent to dismal.

One big difference is oversight. For traditional public schools, each school reports to a central administration, which reports to an elected school board. Charter school boards are not elected, but the state’s Office of Charter Schools keeps tabs on whether each school’s academic record, financial standing and overall compliance is good enough for the school to keep getting public money.

As I reported last week, 38 charter schools are going through the review and renewal process this year. That includes several in our area. One is at risk of closing, five are on what one Board of Education member called “flashing caution light” status and a couple got the office’s highest endorsement. If you’re a current or prospective charter school parent, it’s worth keeping an eye on this … and remembering that a nice building and a good sales pitch don’t always signal a high-quality education.

Former CMS administrators tackle a mess in Houston

Millard House (left) and Denise Watts. (Photos: Houston Independent School District)

People like to gripe about their local boards of education, but there are always school board struggles going on across America that put ours into perspective. Today’s case in point: The Houston Independent School District board, which has been locked in a legal battle with the Texas Education Agency for years. News reports say the agency plans to replace the entire board and superintendent as early as this week.

I won’t try to summarize the educational and political issues creating this clash; I can barely keep up with Raleigh, let alone Texas. But it’s interesting to note that the superintendent in question is Millard House, who was hired in June 2021. His most recent previous job was as a superintendent in Tennessee, but House also served as CMS chief operating officer for a short stint in 2012-13. Houston’s chief of schools may be a more familiar name for local readers: Denise Watts. She spent 18 years in CMS, culminating with her stint as head of Project LIFT, a high-profile, public-private partnership that tried to turn around several schools in west Charlotte.

Hat tip to Bolyn McClung, education junkie extraordinaire, who clued me in on the role CMS administrative alumns are playing in Houston.

Time for CMS Teacher Talks

The CMS Foundation’s fifth annual Teacher Talks event takes place Thursday evening at Central Piedmont Community College’s uptown Halton Theater. This year you can hear Elizabeth Clarke of South Charlotte Middle School, Taylor Gloyd of Highland Creek Elementary, Alicia Moss of J.M. Alexander Middle School, Olivette Myers of Ranson Middle School and Hayley Rowley of Renaissance West STEAM Academy talk about what they’ve taught and learned in the classroom. Tickets are free for CMS employees and $28.52 for others. (Disclosure: The CMS Foundation is running a paid announcement about this event on WFAE.)


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Ann Doss Helms has covered education in the Charlotte area for over 20 years, first at The Charlotte Observer and then at WFAE. Reach her at ahelms@wfae.org or 704-926-3859.