Segregated Schools in Atlanta (Redan, Decatur: 2015, homes, neighborhoods)

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

It is not obvious (to me at least) how we solve the problem. As we all recall, forced busing was used to desegregate schools way back when. I'd hate to see that re-enacted. But, what do you do?

Busing worked to create more diverse schools.

[jeoff]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Busing worked to create more diverse schools.

Are you being sarcastic?
Busing poured fuel on the fire.
“They have busing (or some equivalent) in county X? Then I choose county Y.”

[seussie]

Seems like there's some math folk here. Anyone thought of how to fund public schools without relying on property taxes? What happens if an '08 hits more than just poor or working class people? Does the public school system just crumble and private schools live?

[PTC Dad]

Atlanta's demographics have shifted dramatically over the past couple of decades. I remember seeing an article in the AJC about the net growth in Atlanta from 2000-2010 and it was around 1 million people. Out of the 1 million net new residents, 80% were minorities with over 50% being African American. It's not that the white population isn't growing, it's just being replaced by a net gain in minority residents.

This has caused a transformation in counties like Gwinnett, Rockdale, Dekalb, Clayton, Henry, and Douglas from majority white to majority minority, which has caused some working & middle class whites to move further out to exurbs like Woodstock, Newnan, Braselton, Cumming, Buford, and Locust Grove to name a few. Upper middle class whites continue to move to areas like North Fulton, East Cobb, Peachtree City, North Gwinnett, and Forsyth County, while the wealthiest white residents tend to move or stay in town where they can afford private schools or have begun to transform some City of Atlanta schools like Mary Lin from majority minority to majority white.

Overall, schools in Metro Atlanta are much more diverse than they were when I was in high school in the early 90's. Back then, schools like Brookwood, Shiloh, South Gwinnett, Parkview, Wheeler, Heritage, Stockbridge, McEachern were over 90% white.

I think diversity is inevitable throughout all of Atlanta, but there are still concentrations of lower middle class whites in some exurban schools and majority black & hispanic schools in closer ring suburbs.

I think the common denominator in underperforming schools in Atlanta is more related to poverty than race. The one county that bucks this trend has been Gwinnett where a lot of the schools have been able to maintain good test scores and diversity with increasing rates of poverty.

Grading Atlanta - Bending the Curve: Why CCRPI Misleads Educators and Parents

[AtlJan]

Originally Posted by PTC Dad

Overall, schools in Metro Atlanta are much more diverse than they were when I was in high school in the early 90's. Back then, schools like Brookwood, Shiloh, South Gwinnett, Parkview, Wheeler, Heritage, Stockbridge, McEachern were over 90% white.

I think diversity is inevitable throughout all of Atlanta, but there are still concentrations of lower middle class whites in some exurban schools and majority black & hispanic schools in closer ring suburbs.

I think the common denominator in underperforming schools in Atlanta is more related to poverty than race. The one county that bucks this trend has been Gwinnett where a lot of the schools have been able to maintain good test scores and diversity with increasing rates of poverty.

Grading Atlanta - Bending the Curve: Why CCRPI Misleads Educators and Parents

Some of the schools on the Northside in APS are less diverse than they were in the 1970s. APS did not have forced bussing--it was voluntary and minority-to-majority from the beginning. The APS elementary school I went to was 50% white, 47% black, 3% Asian throughout the 1970s. This was because it was not well-supported by the largely white neighborhood it was in, leaving plenty of seats for minority students to choose to attend, up to 50% of the school. Now it is wildly popular in the neighborhood. It has more than doubled in size since that time, and is 74% white, less than 10% free lunch.

I totally agree with PTC Dad's statement that the disparity in our schools is mostly about poverty. Just a comparison. If you look at Chattooga County High School in the northwest corner of the state, its students are 80% white, 70% free lunch. It is ranked on schooldigger at 323th out of 417 high schools in Georgia. Then there's Mays High School in Atlanta, its students are 97% African American, 99% free lunch. It ranks on schooldigger at 356th out of 417. One's a small, white, rural school. The other is a large, black, urban school. . .Test scores for both are well below the state average and their rankings are very similar. Poverty looks like the big common denominator between them.

[BR Valentine]

We’ve known for decades that educational attainment / test scores and income are almost perfectly correlated and no one has figured out how to decouple the two without gaming school enrollment patterns.

As for the issue of achieving better integration, the article I linked earlier in this thread discusses how school attendance boundaries promote segregation and how they could be used to decrease segregation. The problem is that school boards and other elected officials are sensitive to what parents want and parents, the white ones especially, want segregated schools no matter how much they may tell themselves otherwise. So we have largely segregated schools.

One thing that Georgia already does that helps to slightly mitigate segregation is having county-wide school districts for the most part. Having school districts serve larger geographic areas makes drawing less segregated attendance boundaries more achievable logistically if not politically. It helps to prevent somewhat the kind of hyper segregation that is so common in the North where school districts often have just a single high school and less than 2,500 students in an entire district.

[ATL Golfer]

I feel like this thread title is an AJC bait clicking bunch of bs.

[demonta4]

Originally Posted by ATL Golfer

I feel like this thread title is an AJC bait clicking bunch of bs.

It's just data and not misleading.

[atlcharm]

Originally Posted by demonta4

Schools 70% or more one race
Data from US News
Atlanta Public Schools (7 out of 9 (78%) Public High Schools)
Mays High School- 97% Black
Washington High School- 98% Black
Therrell High School- 98% Black
Douglass High School- 97% Black
Maynard Jackson High School- 87% Black
The New Schools at Carver- 96% Black
South Atlanta High School- 96% Black

Fulton County Schools (6 out of 16 (37%) Public High School)
Banneker High School (College Park)- 96% Black
Cambridge High School (Milton)- 71% White
Creekside High School (Fairburn)- 86% Black
Langston Hughes High School (Fairburn)- 93% Black
Tri-Cities High School (East Point)- 79% Black
Westlake High School (Atlanta)- 97% Black

Clayton County Schools (7 out of 9 (78%) Public High Schools)
Drew High School (Riverdale)- 76% Black
Jonesboro High School- 72% Black
Lovejoy High School- 82% Black
Mount Zion High School (Jonesboro)- 75% Black
Mundy’s Mill High School (Jonesboro)- 84% Black
North Clayton High School (College Park)- 90% Black
Riverdale High School- 82% Black

Cobb County Schools (4 out of 16 (25%) Public High Schools)
Walton High School (Marietta)- 70% White
Lassiter High School (Marietta)- 74% White
Pope High School (Marietta)- 77% White
Harrison High School (Kennesaw)- 80% White

Dekalb County Schools (12 out of 18 (67%) Public High Schools)
Cedar Grove High School (Ellenwood)- 98% Black
Columbia High School (Decatur) -98% Black
Cross Keys High School (Druid Hills) 83% Hispanic
Lithonia High School- 95% Black
Martin Luther King Jr High School (Lithonia)- 97% Black
McNair High School (Atlanta)- 96% Black
Miller Grove High School (Lithonia)- 97% Black
Redan High School (Stone Mountain)- 94% Black
Southwest Dekalb High School (Decatur)- 97% Black
Stephenson High School (Stone Mountain)- 95% Black
Stone Mountain High School- 85% Black
Towers High School- 95% Black

Gwinnett County Schools (2 out of 19 (11%) Public High Schools)
Shiloh High School (Snellville)- 75% Black
South Gwinnett High School (Snellville)- 72% Black


Diverse Schools (Schools with no racial majority)
(Atlanta Public)
North Atlanta High School
(Fulton County)
Centennial High School (Roswell)
Northview High School (Duluth)
Riverwood International Charter School (Sandy Springs)
(Clayton County)
Forest Park High School
(Marietta City)
Marietta High School
(Cobb County)
Wheeler High School (Marietta)
Campbell High School (Smyrna)
North Cobb High School (Kennesaw)
Sprayberry High School (Marietta)
(Dekalb County)
Chamblee Charter High School
Dunwoody High School
Lakeside High School
(Gwinnett County)
Parkview High School (Lilburn)
Brookwood High School (Snellville)
Duluth High School
Peachtree Ridge High School (Suwanee)
Norcross High School
Mountain View High School (Lawrenceville)
Dacula High School
Collins Hill High School (Suwanee)
Central Gwinnett High School (Lawrenceville)
Archer High School (Lawrenceville)
Grayson High School (Loganville)
Lanier High School (Sugar Hill)




I compiled all of this data while doing research for a paper and came up with some interesting conclusions. Research shows that more diverse schools perform better than segregated ones, which makes Gwinnett County's success make sense. Cobb is way more diverse than many give it credit for and Dekalb is absolutely horrible at diversity. If I had to rank the diversity of our core county systems it would go like this


1. Gwinnett County Schoools
2. Cobb County Schools
3. Clayton County Schools
4. Fulton County Schools
5. Atlanta Public Schools
6. Dekalb County Schools

Hopefully this could help someone who is planning to move and wants to find a diverse school district. What other observations can we make from this?

Yes I'm buying in the Peachtree ridge district and it was definitely a deciding factor!!

[atlcharm]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

No surprise since schools generally mirrors the makeup of their particular local community.

Yes, that was a tip I was given for my home search. Living in a diverse neighborhood was very important to me and someone suggested I look up the demographics of the assigned school district as it likely would follow the makeup of the area.