March 1999

A REVIEW OF NYACK DISTRICT DATA ON MINORITY ACHIEVEMENT

Prepared by the Nyack branch of the NAACP and Nyack PIE

This winter, as it has for the last decade, the Nyack School District provided data on minority achievement to the Nyack Branch of the NAACP. The NAACP has made this annual request for two reasons: 1) to monitor how children of color are doing in school compared to their white counterparts, and 2) to call to the attention of the administration and school board any inequities in the system.

The NAACP -- and, more recently, Nyack PIE -- have operated under the belief that objective proof of such racial inequities would prompt the district to change. Statistics over the last decade, however, prove disturbing. As we shall review later, many of the trends seen in 1997’s data have remained consistent over the years, despite different administrations and a changing teaching staff.

The NAACP and PIE believe that true equity for all children in the Nyack School district can only come about when it becomes, not one of many priorities, but the number one priority. Certainly, that is the thrust of the new state standards which are going into effect this year. It is, therefore, an appropriate moment to submit an analysis of the district’s data on minority achievement, in the hope that what has been overlooked or accepted as inevitable up to now will be understood to be unjust, intolerable, and past due for change.

I. Minority Hiring

The employment of teachers of color has improved over the last decade, but the improvement has not been as striking as various administrations have claimed. 1997/98 statistics show that 25 of 224 teachers are minority. That equals 11.2%. A dozen years ago, in 1987, minority teaching staff was 7.7%. An increase of less than 4% pales next to a student population that has consistently had between 30% and 40% minority students. The persistent problem of retaining minority faculty needs to be addressed.

Out of a secretarial staff of 40, only 2 employees are minority.

There are no people of color in central administration.

A recent article in the Westchester edition of The Journal News attributes the increase in minority hires in the Ossining school district to an attitude typified by Superintendent Robert Roelle: "If we really believe there’s richness in diversity, then we have to be a model of that." In Ossining, principals are asked how many minority candidates were interviewed. "If the answer is none, Roelle may throw out the list and order the principal to start again."

The Nyack school district needs to put not just good will but significantly greater funding behind minority recruitment and retention, specifically for visits by recruiting personnel to traditionally black colleges and reciprocal visits by candidates of color to the district. Nyack must begin by acknowledging that its present out-reach is not enough and that it needs an affirmative action policy.

II. Special Education Department

Rather than improving as children get older, the total percentage of children in special education increases from 51% of elementary special education students being children of color to 55% in Middle and High School. One would expect this trend to be just the opposite, if the needs of special education children were being addressed in the early years.

In the Nyack School District, special education is essentially a permanent classification. Out of 113 children of color classified as "Learning Disabled," the number declassified in 1997/98 was one (1). Of those 58 labeled "Emotionally Disturbed," the total declassified was two (2), or 3%. Overall, less than 1% of the children of color children were declassified during this time (and only 9% of white children).

A look at long term trends will show that these grim numbers have remained largely unchanged for more than a decade, even as this has become a state and national issue.

III. Performance on Regents Exams

Math is widely considered the "gateway" subject for admission and success in college. District statistics show that minority students are far more likely to be in the slowed down math courses, with little to no access to the gateway courses. In English, the number of minority children taking Regents is disproportionately low, and similar statistics hold true in other Regents exams. In U.S. History/Government, while more children of color are taking the exams, the percentage passing is well below that for white children.

Nyack can take pride in the increasing number of minority students taking Regents exams; U.S. News and World Report’s recognition of the high school was largely based on these statistics. Now, the district must concentrate on having more students who take the test pass it.

IV. Enrollment in Advanced and Regents Classes

The NAACP’s request for this data is predicated on the idea that, in order for children of color to achieve at the Regents level and beyond [see above], they must have an equal chance to enter the district’s most challenging classes. A sampling of the data shows that this is not the case.

Again, starting with Math as the "gateway’ subject, a total of only three (3) students of color are in Math 2 and 3 AD. This means that only 4% of the advanced math students are minority.

That 4% figure holds true for Chemistry AD. In Biology and Physics, 10% or fewer of the AD students are of color. A total of 13 students of color are in English 10 and 11 AD courses or 7%.

The percentage of children of color in any AD class never rises above 12%, where closer to 40% of the high school population is minority.

V. Suspensions

Suspension data is requested to see if children of color are disproportionately referred for disciplinary action.

A review of the district’s most recent suspension statistics shows that there were nearly 300 suspensions for children of color, compared to 115 for white children. This indicates a striking reversal of numbers. Where roughly two-thirds of the school populations is white, it is the children of color who account for two-thirds of both the total of suspensions and the total days on suspension.

This disturbing data should prompt the district to ask: is behavior by children of color punished differently than the behavior of white children?

VI. PEP Tests

The statistics for the PEP tests, administered in Math and Reading in the 3rd and 6th grades, show that virtually 100% of the Non Minority students score above state requirements (a fractional 0.8% did not). In the case of Minority students, 10% of the children of color who took the 3rd grade reading test scored below state requirements, 30% in 6th grade reading, 4% in 3rd grade math, and 6% in 6th grade math.

DATA FROM 1987-1997

In special education, more than half of the district’s classified population has consistently been children of color. [See Graph A]

In Math Regents, while 1997/98’s data is an improvement of six percentage points over 1995/96, at no time during the last ten years has the district raised its percentage of children of color taking Regents Math above 25%. [See Graph B.]

In English Regents, the most recent data indicates only a three point increase over ten years ago. [See Graph C.]

In Minority suspensions, 1997/98’s level of 63% of suspensions issued to children of color is the worst in a decade. [See Graph D.]

The above analysis shows:

Over the last ten years, many explanations have been given for the above inequities. These include blaming the student’s families, excusing Nyack’s statistics by pointing out that they are part of a national trend, and pointing to failed policies which will soon be corrected by new tests, new standards, new staff, etc.

No explanations excuse the results. And the results are unacceptable. We encourage the Board of Education to conduct its own analysis of this data and develop an action plan which will insure:

This action plan should be re-visited quarterly to see if the trends outlined in this analysis are successfully being turned around.

Democracy depends on all citizens having an equal opportunity, and public education is one of the major ways our society has of guaranteeing that fair chance. No matter what the explanations, if the school board concludes that the Nyack School District is consistently failing to educate its children of color, it is operating not only an immoral but in all likelihood an illegal system.