Exploring The Racial Imbalance Of NC's Charter Schools
In Durham’s Central Park School for Children, classrooms look and feel different than they did just a few years ago. Frankly, the charter school is not as upper-middle class or white as it used to be.
“There’s a greater diversity of viewpoints, there’s a greater diversity of perspectives,” Director John Heffernan explains.
In 2013, the school tried something no other charter school in the state has done before. In collaboration with state education leaders and the financial lender Self-Help, the school began giving students from low-income families a better chance of getting in.
Those who qualify for free and reduced price meals are given priority in the weighted lottery system. Before this rule, only six percent of kids qualified for free and reduced meals. Today, that number is up to 18 percent.
Heffernan says the goal is 40 percent, a number that better reflects the community around them. He explains that the school’s mission is to “take advantage of the differences and diversity, but to also have really great outcomes for kids.”
As the school becomes more economically diverse, the racial demographics are also changing.
Over the last two years, the number of black students has increased by seven percent to 23 percent and the number of white students has decreased from 69 to 61 percent. Meanwhile, the number of Asian and Latino students is rising.
Outside of Central Park, it’s different story.
Disproportionately White, Disproportionately Minority
“We’ve got disproportionately white charter schools and disproportionately minority charter schools,” says Helen Ladd, a professor at Duke University’s Sanford Exploring The Racial Imbalance Of NC's Charter Schools | WUNC: