Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 January 2002 — Page 6

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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

FRIDAY, JANUARY 18,2002

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Cambridge to desegregate schools based on economic status

BOSTON (AP) — Cambridge officials will begin assigning students to schools based largely on their parent’s income, replacing an aging racial desegregation program critics say is outdated and misdirected. The shift puts Cambridge at the forefront of a small but growing nationwide movement supporters say acknowledges what some educators have long suspected: poverty is a better indicator of poor academic achievement than race. “It’s highly insulting to say that African-American or Latino kids need to sit next to whites in order to learn,” said Richard Kahlenberg, of the Century Foundation, a Washington D.C.based think tank. “The problem isn’t having a school with a majority of students of color, the problem is having a majority of poor kids,” he said. “The reality is that lowincome parents are much less active in schools and that translates into lower academic achievement.” Higher income parents tend to put a premium on a college education and push their children to work harder in elementary school, he said. In the Cambridge plan, race will be used as a secondary determining factor, not the primary reason for school placement. By replacing race with economic status, Cambridge is hoping to fend off legal challenges to its current system. Courts have recently ruled against desegregation plans based primarily on race. More importantly, school officials say, the new plan promises to raise the performance level of poorer students by putting more of them in schools with the children of middle class and wealthier parents. A classroom in which most students are motivated creates a

positive educational environment, which tends to pull up the grades of all the students, school officials said. The opposite is true if there is a majority of lessmotivated students in a class, they said. Cambridge school officials looked at how many children in each elementary school are enrolled in free lunch programs to determine how segregated the schools are by income. The city wide average is about 48 percent, but in some schools the participation rate was as low as 20 percent and in others as high as 88 percent, according to Superintendent Bobbie D’Alessandro. The goal is to eventually bring the number of students in each school enrolled in the free lunch program to within 5 percent of the citywide average, she said. Cambridge will begin desegregating kindergarten classes in September. “It’s a victory for all the children in Cambridge if you talk about equity and excellence in education," D'Alessandro said. Although the program won the unanimous support of the school committee, some parents were wary of the changes, fearing the mix might slow down the pace of learning. In fact, research shows mixing students by income brings all students up to the higher level of learning, D’Alessandro said. Anthony Galluccio was in the sixth grade when Cambridge first desegregated schools by race. His almost all-white classroom saw an influx of new, nonwhite faces. Galluccio, now mayor of Cambridge, said he’s proud his city took that first step voluntarily, but hopes the new program will be even more successful at improving education for all students. It took a bit of convincing for some parents, Galluccio said.

“Some parents were worried, is my child’s performance going to be brought down by an underachieving student?”’ Galluccio said. “We did an effective job at showing them the data.” Galluccio said the schools became segregated along richpoor lines in part because wealthier parents choose schools based on performance while poorer parents were more concerned with the school’s location, leaving poorer kids grouped in schools near their neighborhoods. The first community to try economic desegregation was La Crosse, Wise., in the late 1980s. Since then, other cities including San Francisco and Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina have adopted similar plans, according to Kahlenberg, who has written a book about school desegregation. The changes were driven in part by court decisions similar to a 1998 ruling that struck down the admissions policy of the Boston Latin School as unconstitutional. That policy required half the students be selected solely on entrance exam scores and grades. Admissions for the remaining half were weighted by race. State education officials are eager to see if Cambridge’s plan works. There are 22 Massachusetts communities with desegregation plans, including Boston, Springfield, Worcester, Framingham, Lawrence, Lowell and Salem. “We’re not sure this is going to be the beginning of a trend, but (state education) commissioner (David Driscoll) will definitely be watching how it works in Cambridge,” said Heidi Perlman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education. “The commissioner has been a big supporter of the idea.”

Neighborhood Resource Center plans series off workshops

Special to The Recorder The Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center — a nonprofit agency that works with commu-nity-based organizations — has announced its schedule of workshops for the first months of 2002. The resource center offers twp types of training designed for neighborhood residents and members of community organizations. Computer classes at the Indianapolis Neighborhood Cyber Center teach beginning and intermediate Microsoft applications: Windows 98 and Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint 2000. The 6-hour sessions are $25 per person and scholarships are available. The center’s other courses, Neighborhood Empowerment Workshops, are offered free of charge. These sessionscover a wide range of subjects dealing with starting, managing and growing neighborhood organizations as well as

other topics of interest to those active with community groups. Neighborhood Empowerment Workshops for January include: • Basic Conversational Spanish, either six Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. starting Jan. 24, or nine Tuesdays from 6 to 7 p.m. starting Jan. 29. • Basic Grant and Proposal Writing, Jan. 29 and Feb. 5,6 to 9 p.m. • Emergency Preparedness, Jan. 31,6 to 9 p.m. Three special sessions in February, about working with government, will be of particular interest to neighborhood residents: •City of Indianapolis Resources, Feb. 6,6 to 9 p.m. • Advocacy for Zoning Issues, Feb. 13,6 to 9 p.m. • Dealing with Neighborhood Nuisances, Feb. 20, 6 to 9 p.m. , Many other topics will be presented during February, including Time and Stress Management, Marketing Your Organization,

Writing a Mission Statement, Starting a Business: Are You Ready?, Neighborhood Newsletters, Parent Power and All About Charter Schools. A Funding Sources for Neighborhoods Fair will be Saturday, Feb. 9, from 9 a.m. to noon. Representatives from a variety of local funders will be on hand to share information and answer questions about grant procedures and processes for obtaining funding. Also learn about the IndianapolisMarion County Public Library’s Foundation Collection, the largest collection in Indiana of materials on foundations, grants and fundraising. Workshops are held at 1802 N. Illinois St., and pre-registration is required. Contact the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center at 1-317-920-0330 to register or obtain a complete schedule of training workshops.

VOLUHTinS OF UIE1ICA PUBLIC AUI0 AUCTION SALE OATES: SATURDAY, January 19 and 26 / February 2,9,16, and 23 SALE START PROMPTLY AT 10:00 AM / Preview at 9:00 AM $100 refundable deposit required for bid number. Bidding starts at $75. $25 Buyers fee for any item over $100. Sales tax will be collected from individuals. Dealers must show proof of license. CASH ONLY All items sold as is with no warranties implied or given. Volunteers of America, 64 N. 1st Avenue, Beech Grove, IN For More Information please call 780-2277