Should Portland, and other districts, do more to educate rich and poor side by side? | OregonLive.com

Should Portland, and other districts, do more to educate rich and poor side by side? | OregonLive.com

Should Portland, and other districts, do more to educate rich and poor side by side?

By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian

May 12, 2010, 5:35PM

Faith Cathcart/The OregonianStudents at Benson High aren't happy about a proposed high school plan that would limit enrollment at their diverse magnet school. They're not the only ones who think the plan needs improvement.As the Portland school district moves to redo its high school attendance patterns with an eye to increasing equity, some parents are beginning to question whether Superintendent Carole Smith's plan will result in too much socioeconomic segregation.

Her plan would improve the degree of economic isolation -- but not by much, some critics say. Four of the city's high schools would have more than 60 percent of their students from low-income homes, while the other four would have rates as low as 10 percent to 30 percent.

How timely, then, that Education Week newspaper just published this fascinating story about a national trend among school districts to do