One such conference is planned by Southern Methodist University on April 27, 2018: https://calendar.smu.edu/site/simmons/event/paving-the-way-to-inclusion-race--equity-in-education/
The lack of US educational equity in US History is documented by the legally segregated school systems that dominated US education through 1976. That system existed to deny educational equity. The year 1976 was the year that Dallas became the last major urban school system in the nation to be declared by the courts to have an acceptable desegregation plan in place. That happened 22 years after Brown v Board of Education. Segregation was no longer legally supported. Social actions took over instead. Families themselves have kept Dallas schools segregated through today. White student populations below 3% in a school indicate a school that is in fact a minority school
In 1976 the Dallas ISD White enrollment was down to 59,582 from 127,124 only 11 years earlier! That White Flight continued until 2010 when White enrollment went up after having fallen to 7,207. Today, 4/2/18, White enrollment is up to 7,722, over a 500 White student increase in 8 years. How many of those students are in magnet schools with the lowest teacher student ratios? Do we mention this history and current situation in equity conversations?
In 1976 the Dallas ISD White enrollment was down to 59,582 from 127,124 only 11 years earlier! That White Flight continued until 2010 when White enrollment went up after having fallen to 7,207. Today, 4/2/18, White enrollment is up to 7,722, over a 500 White student increase in 8 years. How many of those students are in magnet schools with the lowest teacher student ratios? Do we mention this history and current situation in equity conversations?
Educational equity talks rarely spend much time on this painful history of inequality. Maybe 4-27-18 will be different.
They also rarely spend time on the supplantation of need based funds for regular funds that are very often reduced in high poverty, high need schools so as to better fund schools where fewer students drawing such funds. (This topic is discussed in more detail at http://schoolarchiveproject.blogspot.com/2015/06/title-vi-complaint-against-disd.html) The schools benefiting from supplantation are disproportionately White.
An open records request is now being designed and circulated to gain support from community organizations. It may take some community pressure so that this request can be secured about DISD spending per student each year for the past decade in all 228 schools.
It will be a large spread sheet with over 228 rows, one row for each school in Dallas ISD. Then there will be over 70 columns. The first 30 will be for the main identification and demographic variables per school as reflected in the DISD Data Portal for each year. The next 32 columns will be for the full per-student funding in each category as reflected in the PEIMS Financial Standard Reports for each campus. (The last column in the campus PEIMS Financial Standard Reports page for each school) Plus additional critical variables will be added as identified.
This will be a goldmine of information, if it can be secured. It will help to document times when equity was not happening. It will help measure how well equity is now being secured. It will provide a solid measure for how well educational equity is being secured in each school.
Equity searched for on such a spreadsheet will look for several factors. The first is that all students receive equal per student "regular" funds toward their education. Second, each school will receive only the amount of need based funds based on the number of students with that need in the school. This spreadsheet will make such verification much easier to secure.
If this open record attempt fails, it will show us where we are in the progress we are attempting to claim. It will show us how much work remains to achieve transparency.
Yes all of this data is already public information in separate reports and locations. It would require many hours to pull it all together, a task DISD staff could do quickly if they already do not have such spreadsheets available.
It will be a large spread sheet with over 228 rows, one row for each school in Dallas ISD. Then there will be over 70 columns. The first 30 will be for the main identification and demographic variables per school as reflected in the DISD Data Portal for each year. The next 32 columns will be for the full per-student funding in each category as reflected in the PEIMS Financial Standard Reports for each campus. (The last column in the campus PEIMS Financial Standard Reports page for each school) Plus additional critical variables will be added as identified.
This will be a goldmine of information, if it can be secured. It will help to document times when equity was not happening. It will help measure how well equity is now being secured. It will provide a solid measure for how well educational equity is being secured in each school.
Equity searched for on such a spreadsheet will look for several factors. The first is that all students receive equal per student "regular" funds toward their education. Second, each school will receive only the amount of need based funds based on the number of students with that need in the school. This spreadsheet will make such verification much easier to secure.
If this open record attempt fails, it will show us where we are in the progress we are attempting to claim. It will show us how much work remains to achieve transparency.
Yes all of this data is already public information in separate reports and locations. It would require many hours to pull it all together, a task DISD staff could do quickly if they already do not have such spreadsheets available.
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