CHAPTER 8: EDUCATION

This chapter focuses on the Durham Public Schools (DPS). Approximately 85% of Durham County's school age children attend the public school system (The State of Durham's Children, 2000). Several issues regarding the DPS were mentioned during interviews and seem to mirror the educational secondary data that shows racial differences in education attainment. Issues highlighted by the interviews included racial disparities, suspensions, drop out rates, the city-county merger and the magnet schools. The concerns about racial disparities were usually connected to the issues of student suspensions and the high drop out rate of African American males. In the recent publication, The State of Durham's Children 2000, it says, "At least one in two (50%) black male students and one in three (33%) black female students who enrolls in ninth grade in Durham does not graduate from a Durham high school in four years." This publication also states that it is difficult to calculate a drop out rate for DPS because there is no tracking system to see where a student goes once they leave the DPS system (DPC & DYCB, 2000).

Regarding the current situation for African American students, one community leader said, "There is suspension [from schools] of African American males largely. So they are on the street and they get in trouble. We need to find another alternative to suspension." Another community leader said, "You talk about kids being suspended temporarily or for long-term. That's a major problem in Durham, especially as it relates to African Americans." In reference to African American male drop out rates, one community leader said, "the county is not doing as much as they could be. It is real terrible." Another community member stated that "speaking out by black students is considered aggressive and they are called trouble makers."

In August 1998, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People filed a complaint about racial discrimination by the Durham County Public Schools System with the Federal Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in the Department of Education. In March 2000, this federal office closed its nineteen month investigation of the discrimination complaints because the Office of Civil Rights stated that the school system has been putting programs in place to address these disparities. The OCR agreed to discontinue their investigation of DPS if the system continued to address the issues of differential treatment of African American students and if the DPS sent them regular updates regarding the DPS efforts. The OCR still has the right to reopen the investigation if they decide that DPS has not done enough to address racial disparities.

DPS is currently working on opening an alternative school for students on suspension. In response to repeated low performance scores on the yearly "report card" issued by the North Carolina State Government's ABC's of Public Education program, the state has sent out advisory teams to help improve the quality of the education at Eastway, Pearson, and Watts Elementary Schools. In 1995, the NC General Assembly created the program as a method to make schools accountable for student performance. According to an article in The Sunday Herald-Sun, "Durham is the only city in the state with a cluster of low performing schools" (Peterson, April 16, 2000).

There seems to be a mixed review of the school city-county merger of 1992 by the people that were interviewed. One community leader said, "[The merger] helped save the inner city schools . . . I've been concerned about more and more people getting out . . . and going into the private school system . . . it will probably take a generation for that to work itself out." Another community member thinks that the merger is reducing the cohesiveness of neighborhoods. He said:

All the kids went to the same school . . . you'll find that children are sort of the cement that binds a neighborhood . . . And when they started forcing kids to go to a specific school and the same time reducing the quality of those schools. I think they just did more damage to our neighborhoods and as much as anything caused the flight out of this city to the suburbs.

One of the major changes in the school system since the merger is the creation of Magnet schools. Each Magnet school focuses on a subject such as the Arts, Science, and Language Arts and individual schools might use different teaching methods or educational philosophies to attract children from all over the County. One community leader and parent said:

(Magnet schools) were developed to attract White students to inner city schools that were predominantly Black . . . to keep White families essentially in the public school system. One thing I saw with the magnet schools I really liked and I have seen happening at our school - is that all teachers and children have chosen to be there.

One limitation of this discussion about the Durham Public Schools is that the team was unable to interview anyone from the DPS Administration. The team scheduled appointments with various administrators, however the appointments were repeatedly canceled. The only information available regarding the DPS's actions was gathered from articles from local newspapers and the team's attendance of DPS board meetings.

In conclusion, the DPS system is working on improving the educational experience for African American students. Some of DPS's efforts are creating the new school at Lakewood for children on suspension and winning a multi-million dollar federal grant from the Safe Schools/Healthy Student Initiative. This grant money is to be used on programs that promote a healthier learning environment by reducing student violence and drug use (Schultz, April 15, 2000).

Chapter 7: Cultural Diversity/Hispanic Issues

Back to TOC

Chapter 9: Rural Durham County