Diversity Dilemma in Iowa Schools

There are few areas in Iowa where race is becoming as diverse as it is in Iowa City. Be it the attraction of the neighborhoods to a diverse graduating class from the University of Iowa, the convenience of travel from the overcrowded Chicago area, or perhaps something as simple as a City just being inviting to a broad spectrum of people. However, there is an issue bubbling under the surface as these people start to see less of a beautiful mosaic and more of clearly defined collection of bordered colors that make up the canvas of Iowa City, prompting action from the cities School Board to draft a policy that attempts to address the disparity of diversity. This policy doesn't define diversity through race. Rather its aim is to even out the number of kids based on achievement, to this end, the correlation of who receive federal assistance known as free and reduced lunch across the district was cited as a more politically correct method of trying to bridge that achievement gap. As it is right now, critics say a handful of the schools are shouldering the majority of the burden.

The community chimes in on the new policy

I start off by saying that I did not live in Iowa City during my elementary school years, though I have several friends that did and I attended Southeast Junior High and City High School, so I take an interest in the happenings of the district as a whole, but have no real 'skin in the game'. I do have some old acquaintances from the Mark Twain Elementary neighborhood where almost eighty percent of students are eligible for the federal assistance programs free lunch and reduced lunch. That makes this the school with the highest rate of kids in poverty in the Iowa City school district.

The Iowa City School District is trying to buck this trend by passing a diversity policy that takes the schools with the highest concentration of students participating in the free/reduced lunch programs and shipping them to other schools with lower participation. This seems to fly in the face of neighborhood elementary schools and creates a mess when attempting to set bus routes so that all students are safely getting to their assigned school. There is also a concern of separating students from their neighborhood peers, and immediately labeling these kids as poor in their new classrooms, concurrent with many instances of being taken from a largely minority school to a largely white school. All of which has led to a large public outcry and a loud dissent on the school board itself.

Is there a clear answer to address the issue of diversity in a school district? School board member Jeff McGinness says 'no', and that Iowa City has hidden its changing population by 'squirreling them away' in certain neighborhoods

McGinness, who voted against the diversity policy, says the school board can only do so much. In order to get at the root causes of the achievement gap in Iowa City schools the towns that make up the district needs to act, "what we need them to agree on is a housing development plan, because that’s the only way it can work. There’s got to be some balance on how we are going manage growth in our district. Without that, everything that we do, every two three years we could have to redistrict as a result."

My critical observation is this; we are talking about schools under the same leadership, in the same district, sometimes only a couple miles apart, and achievement, by whatever metrics they have established to measure that, is suffering from such a large disparity that we are prying kids out of their neighborhoods to try and correct it. This issue appears to supersede any concern about how much money we are dumping into schools, or what teachers they have, or what tests we are giving them. The case is made once again with this story that income and pedigree seem to be the best indicators for educational success.

Is there an admission in this story that poor education is contagious? Is this the hump that kids are all but doomed to fail to get over when they are born into communities that are already behind? Obviously no one wants to believe that your geographical location should be the primary indicator for if you are successful or not in life, but that is the elephant in the room that appears to be weighing us down. The question then becomes what are we going to do to fix it.

Here are some of my suggestions;

Break up low income housing, making sure to keep the net number that we need available, but have the program focus on subsidizing units rather then entire developments. This could help avoid such high concentrations of low income students. Also consider putting term limits on each unit or some form of incentive to try to encourage families to better their situation and potentially stay in the units even if a subsidy is lessened over time.

District wide talented and gifted programs. If we have the next Mozart or Einstein in the district, we need to encourage that individual, regardless of their location.

Good old fashioned involvement. I can understand and appreciate that technology makes it easier then ever to keep parents up to date on what's going on in their children's education, however, technology can be turned off. Programs that build relationships between educator and parents in person need to be encouraged and parents need to be persuaded to take an active part in a child's education. Perhaps opening a tutor shop in these neighborhoods that kids can go and work on their homework with a certified teacher ready to assist would help.

I don't feel that these neighborhoods are so far gone that we need to turn a blind eye or run away from them in fear.