From Desegregation to School Choice: How the Civil Rights Era Influenced the Cleveland Schools of Today Ideastream 11/15/2017

From Desegregation to School Choice: How the Civil Rights Era Influenced the Cleveland Schools of Today- Ideastream 11/15/2017

The link is here

For millions of children across the country, where they go to school is largely determined by where they live. Public school districts have historically assigned students to schools located in or near their neighborhoods.

Cleveland is trying a different approach by integrating school choice into its district model, but you could say the city’s school choice movement began in the 1960s, a time of racial tension that led to the Cleveland school system we see today.

Cleveland Leadership in the 1960s

George Forbes is one of the most prominent names in modern Cleveland history. Elected to city council in 1963, Forbes was one of several black politicians who led Cleveland through the nation’s Civil Rights Era, and through the fall out of desegregation in the city’s schools.

“I hadn’t been in office, but three or four months and we were confronted with this big issue of equality in schools,” Forbes said.

At the time, there were nearly 135,000 students in the district. Black schools throughout the city were overcrowded, but instead of integrating school populations, the district chose to build new ones – keeping black children isolated.

“The Board of Education had taken the position that they were going to build new schools and decided that Stephen E. Howe was one of the places they were going to build schools,” Forbes explained.

During its construction, Stephen E. Howe Elementary School, in the Glenville neighborhood that Forbes represented, became the site of protests led by civil rights activists.

On April 7, 1964, 27-year-old white protestor Rev. Bruce Klunder was killed as he and others laid themselves in front of and behind the tracks of a bulldozer at the construction site.

Klunder’s death slowed the school’s completion, but it didn’t stop it, and racial tensions grew, Forbes said, as African Americans protested and boycotted more black schools.

“It came from people, the groundswell,” he said. “We don’t want the school. We’re not going to go there.”

More than a decade later, a federal court ordered Cleveland to bus kids into other neighborhoods to achieve racial balance in the schools.

School Choice Comes to Cleveland

Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eric Gordon said the decision resulted in the first instance of school choice in the city: white flight and wealth flight from the district into the surrounding suburbs.

“It was a tough form, right?” Gordon said. “I had to make a choice as a parent whether I would send my child to the assigned school across the city for integration purposes, or whether I would choose to pay for a parochial or private school, or whether I would choose to move out of the city.”

“It was absolutely a form of choice,” he added.

The exodus of white, middle income families led to a massive decline in enrollment in Cleveland schools. Between 1980 and 1990, CMSD went from 92,000 to 69,000 students. That decline strained resources and concentrated poverty in the district.

After years of mismanagement and financial turmoil, legislation in the mid-90s led to the introduction of school vouchers in Cleveland—one of the first cities in the country to incorporate the form of choice that give children public funds to attend a private school.

Then came charters, which Gordon said led to the departure of another 10,000 kids from the district.

“All while the school district was saying we will assign you to xyz school,” Gordon said. “You don’t have any choice inside the district.”

Then Comes ‘The Cleveland Plan’

Gordon’s tenure as CEO and the implementation of a new education reform plan—known as The Cleveland Plan—marked a change in that culture.

Implemented five years ago, The Cleveland Plan allowed parents to send their children to any school in the district, including CMSD-sponsored charters.

District enrollment is up for the first time in 40 years, Gordon said, to 39,000 students and achievement is starting to follow.

“Families were choosing. They had been choosing for decades. The only place they weren’t choosing was CMSD because we were saying you shouldn’t be allowed to choose and we were saying we will assign you where you will go to school, very much like traditional school districts across the country have always done,” Gordon said.

“Our notion was, if families are choosing, let’s get into the choice game, let’s compete, let’s be part of the choice,” he added.

Does Choice Lead to Academic Success?

In the majority minority district, CMSD’s scores on state report cards are up, but its overall grade is an F.

The four-year graduation rate has increased and so has the number of K through 3rd grade students reading at grade level, but when you break down the scores by race, the numbers tell a different story.

A quarter of African American students in the district are meeting English Language Arts learning goals compared to about half of their white peers. The rates are almost identical when it comes to math, and only marginally better for the district’s Hispanic population.

Dr. William Sampson of DePaul University does not believe choice leads to academic success for minority students. Nationwide, Sampson said vouchers, charters, and other forms of choice have resulted in a new surge of segregation in the education system that’s fueled poor academic outcomes.

White, middle-income parents have the means to take advantage of options, he added, leaving minority and low-income students behind, students who need more resources to succeed.

“It’s not that the presence of white kids has some sort of magic power over the quality of education,” Sampson explained. “Unfortunately, white folks aren’t that great.”

“It’s that the resources typically follow white kids, whether they be financial resources, [or] student support services.”

Choice and Competition in the Classroom

But it’s not just the loss of resources that Sampson said hurts minority students in this era of school choice. It’s the loss of opportunity for a child to compete, Sampson said, and overcome the racism and the inferiority they’re taught by society.

“When you grow up next door to a kid, or in the next classroom or the next row in a classroom, and you’re a black kid and you’re doing better in class than that white kid, then you start to question whether or not you are inherently inferior,” Sampson explained.

“You realize that you can do just as well as this white kid,” he said. “That dispels that self-hatred, and that’s critical in our society.”

That’s what black Clevelanders wanted in the 1960s, Forbes said, a mixing of races in schools that would help all children learn they were more alike than different.

But Forbes said the city’s first experience with school choice—the white flight of the Civil Rights era– is still evident in Cleveland public schools today.

Did Integration Work?

The current state of the district makes it difficult for Forbes to believe that minority students are any better off than they were when he attended a segregated Memphis school during his youth, either because of the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown versus Board of Education decision that ended legal segregation in public schools, or the fight he helped lead for integration.

“It didn’t work,” Forbes said of Cleveland’s desegregation struggle. “If I had to do it again, I would not have done it.”

“But this was part of the times,” he went on. “It was happening all over the country. Education was at an apex and that was what black folks demanded, but we did not get…we got the Supreme Court decisions. We got those things, but when you look back at it, it is what it is.”

Gordon disagreed with both Sampson and Forbes. With Sampson on the outcomes Cleveland children are achieving, and with Forbes on the success of the city’s Civil Rights struggles.

“Have we achieved the outcome yet that we desire for every kid? No,” he said. “I would say that the system that I’m running is not yet what I want for every child, a black child, a white child, a Hispanic child.”

“But,” he added, “we are actively working on it because of the really tough decisions that George Forbes and his peers made decades ago.”

Gordon said choice works for Cleveland, but the legacy of segregation, of inequity in the school system is a battle the district could face for years to come.

George Voinovich Era as Cleveland Mayor aggregation

1 Interview With Senator George Voinovich, Cleveland Mayor from 1980 thru 1989 (video)
2 The Voinovich Collections from Cleveland State Univ and Ohio Univ
3 Mayor of Cleveland: The Comeback City from the Voinovich Collections (CSU and Ohio Univ)
4 Mayoral Administration of George V. Voinovich – The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
5 George Voinovich from Wikipedia
6 Voinovich and Forbes: The Era of Good Feelings (Cleveland Magazine 12/2012)
7 Mr. Ohio
8 The Great Divide – from Cleveland Magazine
10 George Voinovich Biography

11 George Voinovich, former Cleveland mayor, Ohio governor and U.S. senator, dies Cleveland.com 6.12.16

Carl Stokes aggregation

1 “The Election That Changed Cleveland Forever” by Michael D. Roberts
2 “It Seems the Race Issue is With Us” Andrew Glass, Washington Post (10/30/1967)
3 Eyes on the Prize – Episode 9 “Power!” (1967–1968)
4 The New Mayor Brought Hope, But Did the Dreams Die? by Margaret Bernstein, Sarah Crump and April McClellan-Copeland
5 The Man, the Strategy and the Seismic Shift by Brent Larkin
6 Carl B. Stokes from the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
7 Carl Stokes Talks About His Careers as a News Anchor, Mayor and Judge (CSPAN 10.30.84)
8 Money and Mobilization: Volunteers in the Stokes Mayoral Campaign by Elis Ribeiro
9 Carl Stokes: Reflections of a veteran political observer by Brent Larkin

10 Carl Stokes Funeral Program

11 Classic Debate Between Cleveland mayoral candidates Carl Stokes and Seth Taft Cleveland City Club Nov 4, 1967 (Audio)

12 Mayoral Candidate Carl Stokes Speaks at the Cleveland City Club 9.15.67 (Audio)

13 Carl Stokes and Ralph Locher at Cleveland City Club 7/9/1971 (Audio)

14 Stokes Era Comes to An End (Plain Dealer 1.18.1998)

15 Excellent collection of essays about Carl Stokes from Cleveland.com in 2007 “Carl Stokes: Profile of the Pioneer”

16. “The Making of a Mayor” PD Sunday Magazine Dec 1967

17. “Promises of Power: A Political Autobiography” by Carl Stokes

Flora Stone Mather aggregation

1 Her Fathers’ Daughter: Flora Stone Mather and Her Gifts to Cleveland by Dr. Marian Morton
2 Short biography of Flora Stone Mather from the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women
3 Gladys Haddad speaks about Flora Stone Mather
4 Flora Stone Mather Documentaries
5 A Tribute to Flora Stone Mather

6. Between Old and New Woman: Flora Stone Mather and the Politics of Gender  By Dr. Einav Rabinovitch-Fox

The Foster Care System in Northeast Ohio. Is it Broken? forum moderated by Philip Morris, Plain Dealer April 18, 2017

The Foster Care System in Northeast Ohio.
Is it Broken?
 

Tuesday April 18, 2017 6:30-8:00p.m.
Cost: Free & Open to the Public
Lakewood Public Library, 15425 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood 44107

RSVP here   Event flyer here   Preview is here
The video is here


Panelists:
Prof. David Crampton, PhD, Jack, Joseph and Morton
Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case
Western Reserve University

Edward L. Gilbert, Author, Attorney & Foster Care advocate

Kate Lodge, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Executive Director of A Place 4 Me, YWCA Greater Cleveland

Betsie Norris, Executive Director, Adoption Network Cleveland

Moderator: Philip Morris, Columnist, Plain Dealer

This panel will examine the issues faced by the foster care system in Northeast Ohio. Some argue that courts and aid workers are being overwhelmed by state funding cuts and issues such as the growing opioid epidemic. Our panel of experts in different areas of the field will discuss this and more.


Philip Morris

Co-sponsored by the Case Western Reserve University Siegal Lifelong Learning Program, League of Women Voters-Greater Cleveland, Cleveland.com plus Lakewood, Heights and Cuyahoga County Library Systems

Corporate sponsor: First Interstate Properties, Ltd. 
For more information, email: 
teachingcleveland@earthlink.net

 

 

Inside the Browns deal By BY JON MORGAN SUN STAFF | DEC 17, 1995

Inside the Browns deal

News Aggregator Archives: FEATURE area 2016

 

Can’t You Hear the 1948 Whistle Blowin’ 10.27.16 (New York Times)

 

Cleveland Indians in 1948: A Story of Integration 10.24.16 (New York Times)

 

Everything You Want to Know About Swing State Ohio, But Were Afraid to Ask 10.20.16 (Fortune)

 

“Heart of Steel” Series from Plain Dealer About Steel Industry in Cleveland 10.16.16 (Plain Dealer)

 

Video from the “Marijuana Legalization in Ohio” Forum w/Moderator Jackie Borchardt, Cleveland.com 10.13.16

 

Confessions of a Rust Belt Orphan (or how I learned to stop worrying and love Akron) by Jason Segedy 10.12.16 (Cleveland Scene)

 

The Importance of “Ground Game” in Ohio President Campaigns 10.9.16 (Bloomberg)

 

Collinwood 1908: Bringing a Fire Back into History 10.6.16 (Belt)

 

So Now We Know For Sure: Mansfield Frazier 10.2.16 (Cool Cleveland) 

 

“Voter Registration in Ohio” a Short History by Michael Curtin 9.25.16

 

Video from Eastside Candidate Forum at Brush High School 9.22.16

 

Midwest Lawschools and Their Students Adapt to New Realities 9.21.16 (Cleveland Scene)

 

Video from “Hough: A Short Look to the Past, a Long Look to the Future” 9.19.16 (City Club)

 

Video from “Lake Erie and Cuyahoga River Water Quality” Forum on 9.15.16

 

“Presidents and Health: How James A. Garfield’s Death Changed American Medicine  9.14.16 (Cleveland.com)

 

The Rise and Fall of Geauga Lake Park”-video 9.9.16 (Cleveland.com)

 

 

Louis Stokes Autobiography “The Gentleman from Ohio” Part 1 is here  Part 2 is here

 

“Redistricting and Voting Rights in Ohio” Forum (Video) 8.25.16

 

Cleveland Metro Economic Performance is Mixed, According Cleveland Federal Reserve 8.25.16

 

On the Cusp: Cleveland’s Larchmere Neighborhood 8.24.16 (Belt)

 

How Milwaukee Shook Off the Rust 8.23.16 (Politico)

 

Cleaving the Crooked Mirror: What’s Really Behind the East and West Side Rivalry in Cleveland 8.17.16 (Thrillist)

 

Morgan Street Cemetary in Ohio City Steeped in History, Architecture 8.3.16 (Cleveland.com)

 

Great Lakes Exposition: A World’s Fair to Remember Opened 80 Years Ago This summer: photos 7.28.16 (Cleveland.com)

 

It’s Time to Retire Tired Talk About the “Rust Belt” 7.27.16 (CBS Marketwatch)

 

In Cleveland’s Public Square, Rights are Exercised. Loudly 7.26.16 (New York Times)

 

Cleveland was the Original Motor City (Ringer) 7.18.16

 

A Visual History of Streetcars and Trolleys in Cleveland 7.14.16 (Cleveland.com)

 

Cleveland Rising? by Alex Baca 7.14.16 (American Conservative)

 

The Forgotten Fastest Man by Daniel McGraw 7.12.16 (theundefeated)

 

Hough: Before and Beyond. A Series on Cleveland’s Hough Neighborhood 50 Years After the 1966 Riots (Ideastream)

 

When Cleveland Became a “Convention City” 7.11.16 (Belt)

The Challenge of Keeping Black Families From Leaving the Midwest 7.5.16 (Atlantic)

Chasing the Ghosts of Coventry Village by Brad Masi 6.30.16 (Belt)

“Cleveland and the Great War” by Kevin Naughton June, 2016 (Pressure Life)

Public Square Renovation, From Beginning to End (Cleveland.com)

“Titles and Tears” an essay by Joe Posnanski 6.20.16 (NBC)

David Morgenthaler, “Cleveland’s Quiet Business Visionary” Dies 6.17.16 Read More

How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood 6.16.16 (Politico) 

The Preacher Who Took on the Police. Cop shootings Have Torn Apart Cleveland. Jawanza Colvin is Trying to Root Out Racism from Legal System 6.16.16 (Politico) 

George Voinovich, Former Cleveland Mayor, Ohio Governor, U.S. Senator Dies 6.12.16 (Cleveland.com)

Teaching Cleveland Digital Interview with Senator George Voinovich (2014)  

The Ingredients of George Voinovich’s Success as Ohio’s Governor: Tom Suddes (Cleveland.com)

George Voinovich, Former Cleveland Mayor, Ohio Governor, U.S. Senator Dies 6.12.16 (Cleveland.com) 

A Photo History of University Circle 6.8.16 (Cleveland.com)

Springfield Ohio Middle Class, Incomes Hardest Hit in U.S., Study Finds 6.5.16 (Dayton Daily News) 

A Visual History of the Detroit Superior Bridge 6.1.16 (Cleveland.com) 

 

Opinion Essay on Northeast Ohio Regionalism Written by a Student at St. Ignatius High School 5.29.16 Cleveland.com

 

A Photo History of Cleveland’s Playhouse Square; Rise, Decline and Rebirth 5.27.16 Cleveland.com

 

Oberlin College: The Big Uneasy: What’s Roiling the Liberal Arts College 5.23.16 New York Magazine

 

Video from “Republican National Convention: What’s in it for Cleveland” forum 5.17.18

 

Video from “Cleveland’s Radio Superstars” 5.16.16

 

University Hospitals Marks 150 in 2016; a Historical Photo Essay 5.13.16

 

Learn More About Republican National Convention’s Impact on Cleveland Cleveland.com 5.11.16

 

Go Hug a Tree. You Just Might Live Longer. Once Upon a Time, Cleveland was the Forest City. -Tim Kovach 4.30.16

 

Regional Alignment Not Competition: How Greater Milwaukee is Remaking Economic Development (Brookings)

 

Playhouse Square Founding Father, David O. Frazier is Honored, Remembered 4.28.2016 (Cleveland.com)

 

Revisiting Hough: Manfield Frazier 4.27.16 (Cool Cleveland)

 

Cleveland’s Public Square: Two Centuries of Transformation by Mark Souther April 2016 (Cleveland State University)

 

Two “Unlikely” Blockbuster Empressarios’ from Cleveland Energe as the “Future of Hollywood” 4.25.16 (Crain’s Cleveland Business) 

 

Video from “Van Aken Project” Forum 4.21.16

 

Will the Shaker Van Aken Project Succeed? Preview of Thursday 4/21 Free Forum: Steven Litt (Cleveland.com)

 

Ohio Won’t Save NE Ohio Public Transit, So Let’s Tax Parking to Fund it Instead: Tim Kovach (opinion) 4.8.16

 

Sculpted Landscapes: Art and Place in Cleveland’s Cultural Gardens (1916-2006) by Prof Mark Tebeau (CSU)

 

Coldest Opening Day Since 1907 4.19.1907 (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Jim Rokakis Talks about NE Ohio Housing, Tree Canopy and Other Issues at 1st Unitarian Church 4.3.16 (Video) 

Metro Cleveland Population Loss Dampens Growth 3.30.16 (Cleveland Federal Reserve)

A Contested Republican Convention in Cleveland? What You Need to Know 3.29.16 (Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com) 

No New Confirmed Aquatic Invasive Species in Great Lakes for 10 Years 3.29.16 (Duluth News Tribune)

Labor Markets are Getting Close to Maximum Employment in Many Parts of Our Region 3.28.16 (Cleveland Fed) 

Your City is Not the Next Silicon Valley by Richey Piiparinen 3.9.16 (Cleveland State University)

Greater Cleveland Employment Trends: 2014 and 2015  -March 2016 (Cleveland State University) 

“Viktor Schreckengost-The Exchange of Art with the Everyday” – winner of the 2016 Teaching Cleveland website award at History Day 3.5.16

2016 Ohio Primary Discussion with Brent Larkin and Mark Naymik 3.2.16 (Video)

Video of Three Ohio Democratic Senate Candidates at Cleveland.com Endorsement Meeting released 3.1.16 (Cleveland.com)

New Images Reveal True Impact of Freeways on Cleveland’s Neighborhoods 2.25.16 (Freshwater)

A Walk Through North Collinwood 2.24.16 (Belt) 

Candidates for Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Debate at the Cleveland City Club: Timothy McGinty v. Michael O’Malley: Video 2.23.16 (City Club)

 

Is Waterfront Development Paying Off? Nine Takeaways From LWV Forum: Steven Litt 2.15.16 (Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com)

 

How Local Media Coverage is Forcing Cleveland to Finally Fix Its Lead Problem 2.9.16 (Columbia Journalism Review)

 

Roundwood Manor: Poignant Legacy of the Van Sweringens; What to do With it Now? Steven Litt 2.4.16 (Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com)

 

Once Famous for Beer, Milwaukee Now Bets on Water 1.26.16 (Marketplace)

 

The Striking Similarities of the Browns’ Move to Baltimore and the Rams Move to L.A. 1.16.16 (Baltimore Sun)

 

5 Facts About Brokered Presidential Conventions: Could We Have One in Cleveland This Summer? 1.8.16 (Dayton Daily News)

 

What Would it Take to Fix Cleveland’s Roads?: Angie Schmidt 1.4.16 (City Club)

 

Correcting For Bias: Mansfield Frazier 1.2.16 (Cool Cleveland)

 

Republican Lawyer Details Three Scenerios for 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Two of them are in “Uncharted Territory” 12.29.15 (Politico)

 

Cleveland Puts More Kids in Strong Preschools, Thousands Still Shut Out 12.20.15 (Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com)

 

The Coldest Darn Place in the World: The Great Lakes Bowl 12.16.15 (Belt)

 

Will Cleveland 2016 Be 1968 Chicago? 12.14.15 (Next City)

 

You Green Boy: An Essay on the Flats: Lee Chilcote 12.5.15 (Cleveland Scene)

 

What Would Dr. King Do?: Mansfield Frazier 11.23.15 (Cool Cleveland)

 

The Cleveland Mafia: The End of an Era and Demise of a Don Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com (11.23.15)

 

Vacant Houses, Blighted Buildings Still Plague Cleveland, But Problem is Shrinking Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com (11.21.15)

 

Video From the “Housing Crisis” Forum Moderated by Brent Larkin (10.7.15)

 

Toxic Neglect: Curing Cleveland’s Legacy of Lead Poisoning Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com (10.20.15)

 

Video From the “How to Become An Education Activist in Northeast Ohio” Forum Moderated by Jill Miller Zimon (8.19.15)

 

Video From the “Land Use in Cuyahoga County” Forum Moderated by Steven Litt (7.29.15)

 

Video From the Regionalism Forum with County Executive Armond Budish, Regional Coordinator Eddy Kraus and Moderator Tom Beres (6.17.15)

 

Regionalism in Northeast Ohio-Material on the Subject From the Past 10+ Years

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