Dallas Schools Work Toward Further Integration

Dallas public schools were ordered by a federal judge to integrate in 1971. Today, schools are more segregated than they were then. In the 1960s, more than half of the students in the district were white. Today, 93 percent are Hispanic or black. Once integration began, white middle and upper class families began to move their children into private schools and moved from the city into the suburbs. This largely defunded public schools who rely on taxes from the neighborhood to bring in money for facilities and programs.

These middle and upper class parents voice concern over whether their children would be safe in schools made up of a majority of low income students. In other words, many people associate low income with violence and drugs. According to the most recent state data, Dallas experienced major disciplinary incidents, like fights and drug and weapons offenses, at about the same rate as the state average.

Michael Hinojosa is the superintendent of the Dallas school system and believes integration is essential. Mr. Hinojosa states, “every major city in America has to find some way to deal with this issue. When you have a mix of kids, the affluent kids don’t suffer and the children of intergenerational poverty do better.” Many cities have been reluctant to address diversity issues in fear of causing middle-class flight from areas as parents move their families out of districts that have high levels of poverty in schools.

One strategy to implement diversity has been “innovation schools” which add programs like the International Baccalaureate curriculum to their schools to make them seem more attractive to those from outside of the district. The implementation of this program has improved test scores, but has not increased diversity.

A more expensive strategy is “transformation schools,” which have been showing some increases in diversity. Students are admitted to a school based on a lottery. This eliminates the income prejudice associated with testing into a school where wealthier families can afford test prep while less wealthy families can not. These schools are organized around are specific focuses like single-sex education, science, the arts, bilingual classes and professional internships.

Richard D. Kahlenberg, an expert on school segregation at the Century Foundation states, “what’s exciting about what Dallas is doing is you have a district that’s 90 percent low-income. So many people look at that and say, ‘Therefore, we can’t integrate.’ That’s not right. You can begin with a small subset of schools and try over time to build the reputation of the school district among middle-class people.”

Transformation schools have been doing just that. This spring, 1,705 students applied for 613 spots in the five existing transformation schools. More than a 25 percent of  those who applied are in private schools or live outside the district, and 15 percent of students who applied are white. The most sought after school is Solar Preparatory School for Girls. The school has gained such a reputation among middle class families in other areas that recruitment had to be stepped up in low-income neighborhoods in order to meet the requirement that half the student body qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. The current ethnic demographic of the school is  51 percent Hispanic, 22 percent black, 22 percent white and 2 percent Asian.

However, the diversity at this transformation school does not speak for all transformation schools. The Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship Academy, or IDEA, is a high school that focuses on professional internship placement. At this school, about 80 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunches, and only eight students are white.

One of the parents of the few white students commented as to why they chose to send their child to IDEA. Sarah Dornback stated, “my husband and I both went to suburban, white high schools. It’s not a reflection of real life.” Mrs. Dornback and her husband did not like other schools emphasis on testing and believed internships and hands-on learning was the best approach to prepare their son for a career.

Although transformation schools have been adding some diversity to schools, many middle and upper class families continue to “window shop” at these schools but never actually send their children here. Mr. Hinojosa hopes that will change but knows that “if parents can’t get over race or class, they’re not going to put their kids in our schools.” It is up to the families of these well off families to see the value in diversity.

Featured Image Via Wikimedia