The SFUSD Desegregation Consent Decree

San Francisco NAACP v. SFUSD et al, No. C-78 1445 WHO

Paragraph 44 Independent Review (Report #17)

THE REPORT OF THE CONSENT DECREE MONITORING TEAM

Submitted to the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California

July 27, 2000

By Stuart Biegel

Consent Decree Monitor

for the State of California

RESEGREGATION OF INCOMING CLASSES[160]

From Report #17: Pages 82-91

Issues relating to student assignment and desegregation remain at the center of recent SFUSD developments at this point in time. Since 1983, and continuously through the end of 1998, the district student assignment plan was based on a combination of neighborhood attendance boundaries and optional enrollment at alternative schools. A parent could choose to send his or her child to the school designated for his or her own neighborhood (if space was available), or could seek to enroll the child at either an alternative school or another neighborhood school. All student assignments were subject to the predetermined formula of Consent Decree Paragraph 13, which limited enrollment of any racial/ethnic group to 45% at regular schools and 40% at alternative schools. In addition, at least 4 of 9 designated racial/ethnic categories had to be represented at every school in the district.[161] And a list of specific factors -- which included certain racial preferences -- determined which students were given priority in the optional enrollment (OER) process.

As the Ho case moved toward a scheduled trial date, this Court ordered the district "to file, by February 1, 1999, a proposed student assignment plan that was not race based, and that could be implemented in time for the 1999-2000 school year if...[it]...did not prevail at trial." The district at the time chose to comply with the order by simply continuing its current plan, while removing the racial preferences priority from the OER process. Subsequent events documented above led to the continuation of the plan for the 2000-2001 school year. Thus two enrollment cycles have now been concluded under a process that continues to employ the same attendance boundaries and the same basic OER formula for determining admission to alternative schools...with two basic changes:

· No longer would African American and Latino students receive priority in the OER process' random computer runs; and

· School enrollments would no longer be limited by the original Paragraph 13 requirements that (a) no more than 40/45% of a particular racial/ethnic group could attend a given campus, and (b) at least 4 of 9 designated racial/ethnic categories had to be represented.

As a result of these changes, we began to find evidence of severe resegregation in certain incoming classes at particular schools...and we documented the projected enrollment figures for Fall 2000 in Report #16. As promised, we have monitored this area very closely, and are now able to present additional data in this regard.

1. Final Accounting of Spring 1999 Enrollment Data

In Report #16, we listed 13 schools where resegregation of incoming classes appeared likely based on May 1999 enrollment projections. Comparing the projected figures with the actual enrollment for the Fall, we found that the May numbers tended to overestimate the acuteness of resegregation in those particular schools.

The actual Fall 1999 enrollment for the specified racial/ethnic groups actually decreased in 11 of the 13 schools on our original Spring 1999 list. And the most notable shifts occurred at the elementary school level...arguably due to the small size of kindergarten classes, where the enrollment of a few students can significantly change the percentages. Middle school and high school figures, on the other hand, remained substantially similar from Spring 1999 to Fall 1999. This may be explained, at least in part, by the fact that students are automatically enrolled into the sixth grade and ninth grade at their attendance area school if they do not choose to express a preference.

Table 1. Comparative Analysis of Spring 1999 and Fall 1999

Resegregation Figures

School	Group	Projected Size of Group (Spring 99)	Actual Size of Group (Fall 99)	Change
O'Connell HS	Latino	53%	47%	- 6%
Mann MS	Latino	64%	63%	- 1%
Marina MS	Chinese American	61%	60%	- 1%
Garfield ES	Chinese American	81%	72%	- 9%
Flynn ES	Latino	81%	70%	- 11%
Carver ES	African American	75%	78%	+ 3%
Edison ES	Latino	73%	63%	- 10%
Drew ES	African American	71%	74%	+ 3%
Sanchez ES	Latino	70%	49%	- 21%
Chavez ES	Latino	68%	61%	- 7%
Lau ES	Chinese American	68%	65%	- 3%
21st C ES	African American	64%	58%	- 6%
New Traditions ES	White	63%	57%	- 6%

We note that while Table 1 shows some significant decreases in resegregation numbers, 9 of the 13 schools still faced severe resegregation in their incoming classes last Fall. And the actual number of severely resegregated incoming classes using the final enrollment figures was worse than predicted by our spring figures. All told, the incoming classes of 18 schools were severely resegregated last year. These included sixteen elementary schools and two middle schools, but no high schools.

Table 2 shows the final resegregation figures for incoming classes in the Fall of 1999. It also shows the total number of students in the incoming class at each of those schools. The group that was most often resegregated was Chinese American (7 schools), followed by Latino (6), African American (4), and White (1). The number of students in severely resegregated classes varied from as small as 20 in Creative Arts Elementary School to as large as 208 at Horace Mann Middle School.

Table 2. Severely Resegregated Incoming Classes in 1999

Schools	Group	Total # of Students in Incoming Class	Pctg. Of Incoming Class
Lowell HS	Chinese American	688	51.9%
Davis MS	African American	143	63.6%
Mann MS	Latino	208	63.0%
Carver ES	African American	59	78.0%
Marshall ES	Latino	37	77.3%
Drew ES	African American	54	74.1%
Garfield ES	Chinese American	39	71.8%
Bryant ES	Latino	40	70.0%
Chin ES	Chinese American	40	70.0%
Creative Arts ES	White	20	70.0%
Flynn ES	Latino	76	69.7%
Yick Wo ES	Chinese American	40	65.0%
Lau ES	Chinese American	102	64.7%
Edison ES	Latino	119	63.0%
Key ES	Chinese American	82	61.0%
Chavez ES	Latino	69	60.9%
Malcolm X ES	African American	58	60.3%
Stevenson ES	Chinese American	78	60.3%
Parker ES	Chinese American	55	60.0%

It should also be noted that with regard to the 18 schools identified in Table 1, both secondary schools were alternative schools. But of the 16 elementary schools, only two were alternative schools and two others were charter schools.[162]

The inexact nature of the projected figures leads to a cautionary note regarding our preliminary data for 2000-2001. The enrollment figures we were able to obtain for the coming year are current as of March 2000...two months earlier than the figures we received this time last year. Thus we expect that the final data for Fall 2000 will vary even more than it did from Spring 1999 to Fall 1999.

2. Projected Enrollment Figures for 2000-2001

At this point in time, after the completion of two enrollment cycles, we must look at the figures for the first two grades at each school...to reflect numbers of students applying for admission in both Spring 1999 and Spring 2000.

We note that while projected percentages for the Fall 2000 incoming classes may change considerably (especially at the kindergarten level, because of the small numbers in entire elementary school grades), the numbers at the 1st, 7th, and 10th grade level are likely to remain more stable, since those students are mostly promoted from the grade they were already enrolled in.

Examining the data in Table 3, we find that the total number of schools with severely resegregated classes remained at 16 for the elementary schools, but increased from 2 to 3 at the middle school level. And at the high school level, one campus now has an entire grade with over 60% of one racial/ethnic group.[163] Altogether, the number of schools on the list increased from 18 to 20.

Table 3. Most Severely Resegregated High School Classes

High School	Group	Projected in 9^th Grade	Projected in 10^th Grade
O'Connell	Latino	67.9%	47.3%

O'Connell High School saw its ninth grade enrollment jump from 46.7% Latino last year to a projected 67.9% for Fall 2000, a change of over 21%. Relocating O'Connell from the Sunset District to its new Mission District location might have led to the dramatic jump in the number of Latino students at that school.

Table 4. Most Severely Resegregated Middle School Classes

Middle School	Ethnic Group	Projected in 6^th Grade	Projected in 7^th Grade
Mann	Latino	69.5%	63.2%
Davis	African American	67.1%	63.6%
Marina	Chinese American	62.0%	61.0%

At both Davis and Mann, the enrollment of the largest racial/ethnic group increased for the new 6^th grade class. Marina, which barely missed hitting the 60% mark last year, is projected to have both its 6^th and its 7^th grade classes exceed that figure in the Fall.

Table 5. Most Severely Resegregated Elementary School Classes

Elementary Schl.	Group	Projected in K	Projected in 1^st Grade
Bryant	Latino	80.0%	70.0%
Marshall	Latino	79.5%	69.4%
Malcolm X	African American	79.0%	64.0%
Chavez	Latino	77.6%	60.9%
Drew	African American	69.3%	76.9%
Carver	African American	67.2%	76.7%
Garfield	Chinese American	50.0%	72.9%
Chin	Chinese American	63.3%	71.8%
Yick Wo	Chinese American	70.0%	67.4%
Creative Arts	White	66.7%	70.0%
Flynn	Latino	68.7%	68.4%
21st Century	African American	68.2%	58.9%
Sanchez	Latino	68.2%	49.1%
Lau	Chinese American	53.4%	68.0%
Stephenson	Chinese American	57.7%	67.1%
Edison	Latino	62.0%	63.0%

The number of elementary schools with severely resegregated classes remained steady at 16, although Key and Parker dropped from the list while 21st Century and Sanchez were added. Resegregation of the kindergarten classes increased at seven schools, but decreased at nine others. However, it must be noted that more kindergarten classes turned out to be severely resegregated last year than the projected spring numbers had shown.

In addition, with regard to the distinction between attendance area schools and alternative schools, we note that three out of the four secondary schools identified in Tables 3 & 4 were alternative schools. But of the 16 elementary schools identified in Table 5, only three were alternative schools and two others were charter schools.

It is also important to note again that the small size of the kindergarten classes means that the percentages at the elementary level can vary substantially with the addition of only a few students. And the data is especially unstable for kindergarten this year because the data we have been able to maintain is only current as of March 2000...and the enrollment at certain schools has clearly not reached the campus average. For example, at De-Avila, the March tables show 16 students enrolled in kindergarten and 24 students enrolled in 1^st grade, but over 50 enrolled in 5^th grade. At Paul Revere, the tables show 36 students in kindergarten, but 95 in 1^st grade. At Starr King, the tables show 18 students in kindergarten, but 62 in 1^st grade. And at Creative Arts, the tables show 9 students in kindergarten and 20 in 1^st grade. The enrollment of kindergartners at schools such as these is certainly likely to increase by the start of school and only then will we know the extent of the resegregation at elementary schools.

Under current numbers, Chinese American and Latino students were the largest ethnic groups in severely resegregated classes for the upcoming school year...with eight schools apiece. African Americans followed with five schools, and Whites with one. Overall the number of schools with classes severely resegregated increased from 18 last year to 20 this year.

It is important to point out that although a greater number of elementary schools have severely resegregated classes and the extent of resegregation of the individual classes is higher for elementary schools, certain middle schools will be the first to completely resegregate, since those schools only have three grades. At this time next year, then, if current patterns continue and no new student assignment plan is forthcoming, three middle schools in SFUSD will be entirely resegregated at the 60% level or above.

3. Resegregation at Low-Performing Schools

We have completed a preliminary analysis of where resegregation of incoming classes is taking place, and we present these findings below. However, we urge the district to examine these patterns in depth, and incorporate the findings into future planning and policymaking.

Examining enrollment data as well as figures regarding CSIP/Reconstitution and the state's Academic Performance Index (API), we found that 9 of the 20 schools identified as showing severe resegregation of incoming classes have either been reconstituted and/or have received API scores below or at 3.

Table 6. Low-Performing Schools with Severely Resegregated Incoming Classes

School	Largest Group	Reconstituted	Low API Score (1-3)
O'Connell HS	Latino		2
Davis MS	African American		1
Malcolm X ES	African American	X	2
Sanchez ES	Latino		2
Marshall ES	Latino		2
Flynn ES	Latino		2
Chavez ES	Latino		2
Edison ES	Latino	X