Superintendent Neu
The Oklahoman: The U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating three complaints against Oklahoma City Public Schools, according to district officials.
Superintendent Rob Neu disclosed the allegations during a Dec. 8 school board meeting in which he said black students are “dying on the vine” academically because the district has failed to support them. “If we don’t intervene and do something now, then we know their pathway,” he said.
The school district is accused of failing to provide equal opportunities to male and female high school students; discrimination against blacks and students with disabilities related to alternative education placements; and individual race-based harassment, retaliation and discrimination against Hispanic and black students related to discipline.
“We are working with the Office for Civil Rights on each of the complaints,” district spokeswoman Tierney Tinnin said Friday. “Because it is an ongoing legal issue, additional information cannot be shared publicly at this time.”
The allegations are contained in Neu’s 100-day transition plan report, which he presented to the board. In the report, he identifies five critical issues the district faces, including academic achievement.
Blacks, who comprise 26 percent of the district’s 46,493 students, are worse off academically than any other group in the district, Neu said. Only 49 percent of black students in grades 3 to 8 are proficient readers compared to 60 percent of students who qualify for free and reduced-priced lunches, he said.
“When you go deep into the data you’ll see that it is more of a factor to be African-American in your performance levels here in Oklahoma City than it is to be in poverty,” Neu told the board. “Students in poverty are outperforming students that are African-American. If you’re African-American and you’re in poverty, you have a double dip.”
‘We have simply failed’
Neu said the high number of males enrolled in special education (20 percent) compared to females (12 percent) in grades 3 to 8 “suggests that behavior is a key driver rather than special education needs,” noting that “African-American boys are overrepresented in special education.”
Black and Hispanic male students, he told the board, are being disciplined “at a much greater level than their white counterparts.”
In the report, Neu says the district’s current academic performance data “tells us there is something more important than poverty or language spoken in the home that is influencing our African-American student’s ability to thrive in the system — we have simply failed to support these students.”
School board Chairwoman Lynne Hardin said the district needs to address the problems and start serving all students. “We keep expecting less and we keep getting less,” she said. “We need to raise the bar and we need to create an educational system that serves young people and not the adults.”
Tinnin, the district spokeswoman, said Neu was not obligated to disclose the allegations, but did so to shine a light on the problems blacks and other underrepresented students in the district are facing.
“The superintendent was not obligated to release the information in his 100-day report, but it supports his views on the importance of transparency and the need for an honest look at the state of our schools,” she said.
You know what that “something more important than poverty or language spoken in the home that is influencing our African-American student’s ability to thrive in the system” might be? How about the lack of a father in their home? Statistics show that 24 million children in America — one out of every three — live in biological father-absent homes, which affects children’s socio-emotional and academic functioning.
But a strong father figure might interfere with liberals’ agenda. After all, your kids belong to the “community”.
DCG
The school district is accused of failing to provide equal opportunities to male and female high school students; discrimination against blacks and students with disabilities related to alternative education placements; and individual race-based harassment, retaliation and discrimination against Hispanic and black students related to discipline.
“We are working with the Office for Civil Rights on each of the complaints,” district spokeswoman Tierney Tinnin said Friday. “Because it is an ongoing legal issue, additional information cannot be shared publicly at this time.”
The allegations are contained in Neu’s 100-day transition plan report, which he presented to the board. In the report, he identifies five critical issues the district faces, including academic achievement.
Blacks, who comprise 26 percent of the district’s 46,493 students, are worse off academically than any other group in the district, Neu said. Only 49 percent of black students in grades 3 to 8 are proficient readers compared to 60 percent of students who qualify for free and reduced-priced lunches, he said.
“When you go deep into the data you’ll see that it is more of a factor to be African-American in your performance levels here in Oklahoma City than it is to be in poverty,” Neu told the board. “Students in poverty are outperforming students that are African-American. If you’re African-American and you’re in poverty, you have a double dip.”
‘We have simply failed’
Neu said the high number of males enrolled in special education (20 percent) compared to females (12 percent) in grades 3 to 8 “suggests that behavior is a key driver rather than special education needs,” noting that “African-American boys are overrepresented in special education.”
Black and Hispanic male students, he told the board, are being disciplined “at a much greater level than their white counterparts.”
In the report, Neu says the district’s current academic performance data “tells us there is something more important than poverty or language spoken in the home that is influencing our African-American student’s ability to thrive in the system — we have simply failed to support these students.”
School board Chairwoman Lynne Hardin said the district needs to address the problems and start serving all students. “We keep expecting less and we keep getting less,” she said. “We need to raise the bar and we need to create an educational system that serves young people and not the adults.”
Tinnin, the district spokeswoman, said Neu was not obligated to disclose the allegations, but did so to shine a light on the problems blacks and other underrepresented students in the district are facing.
“The superintendent was not obligated to release the information in his 100-day report, but it supports his views on the importance of transparency and the need for an honest look at the state of our schools,” she said.
You know what that “something more important than poverty or language spoken in the home that is influencing our African-American student’s ability to thrive in the system” might be? How about the lack of a father in their home? Statistics show that 24 million children in America — one out of every three — live in biological father-absent homes, which affects children’s socio-emotional and academic functioning.
But a strong father figure might interfere with liberals’ agenda. After all, your kids belong to the “community”.
DCG
