Caucus launches effort to lift impoverished black students in CCSD

By Brian Nordli

Monday, Oct. 27, 2014 | 9:15 p.m.

There are 32,371 black students in the Clark County School District on free and reduced-price lunch plans, and they represent an invisible student population.

These students, who are on a meal plan for families in poverty, make up about 70 percent of the black student population and have some of the lowest rates of English and math proficiency in the district. They’re also not tracked on a state level, meaning they often fall through the cracks when it comes to funding, said Yvette Williams, chairwoman of the Clark County Black Caucus.

To highlight the issue, the caucus launched “Operation 32371,” designed to shed light on the achievement gap facing black students in poverty.

The initiative puts a face on these students as the caucus pushes for legislation to track by ethnicity students receiving free and reduced-price lunches, and account for them in a weighted funding formula for schools, Williams said.

The caucus announced Operation 32371 at its annual education forum held on the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 school desegregation ruling that intended to wipe out racial inequality.

Both state Superintendent Dale Erquiaga and Clark County Schools Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky attended the event at the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in support of the initiative.

Black students in poverty struggle at every grade level. Some elementary schools have proficiency rates as low as 23.4 percent in English, and 17.9 percent in math for black free and reduced lunch students.

"That means they’re illiterate they can’t fill out a job application, they can’t even think about going to college,” Williams said. “That student population represents 72 percent of our total black student population in Clark County — are you kidding me?”

Meanwhile, those students are primarily in schools with high rates of teacher vacancies. The schools and students need more resources, Williams said.

The Nevada Department of Education does not require districts to track by ethnicity students receiving free and reduced-price lunches, which mirrors federal law. Tracking that data will be considered at the next legislative session along with a new funding formula to reflect the needs of the state’s diverse student population, Erquiaga said.

The current funding model for school districts is nearly 60 years old and out of date, he added.

“We have to do things differently,” Erquiaga said during the event.

Meanwhile, schools with high minority populations often lag behind other schools in academic achievement.

“If you are at a five-star school, you are white or Asian,” Erquiaga said. “If you are at a one-star school you are black, an English language learner, Native American and poor. These are urban schools and rural schools. Those are the real lives behind the statistics.”

The additional funding could be used to help extend school days and provide resources for those students. The focus would be on identifying those FRL students who are struggling at an early age and providing them resources they need to catch up, Skorkowsky said.

More needs to be done for schools with high minority populations, he added during the event.

Williams hopes this will be another step toward achieving the equitable education envisioned 60 years ago.