Cedar Ridge High and Orange County Schools can do better to close the achievement gap

[Peifer, Mark A]

Dear Superintendent Wirt, Principal Blackmon, and members of the Orange County Board of Commissioners

I am a parent in the Orange County Schools—both of my daughters went through county schools throughout.  One graduated five years ago and the other graduates this year, and I have been quite happy with the education they received.  I went last evening to the Senior awards ceremony for Cedar Ridge High—it was a nice event that clearly involved a lot of work by lots of folks and was appreciated by parents and students.  However, during this event I was struck by something I found quite sad.  Neither the National Honors Society nor the Top 10% students reflected the diversity of the school.  I don't know all the students personally, but it was a virtually all white group.

It reminded me of something I learned when my older daughter started kindergarten at Grady Brown.  At that point all of the kids are so excited about school and about learning.  Sadly, however, the playing field is already very uneven—the difference of the language spoken at home, the time parents have to devote to their kids versus working long hours or two jobs, the educational opportunities the parents had, all mean that a few years down the road the students have already started to diverge substantially, and its exceptionally difficult to close that gap.

I realize these are not problems unique to Orange County—they are the problems we face as a a society, as socioeconomic issues become destiny.  I was fortunate, growing up at the time and in the place I did.  Neither of my parents had a chance to go to college and both worked blue collar jobs, but the public schools in my part of the Twin Cities were superb.  At that time my parents bought into the American Dream—their hard work would give me and my brother the chance to get a good education and move up.  For me, as a white boy growing up in that time and place, the Dream was real and realizable.  Now I look at my blue-collar neighbors and see that they have a much harder time believing in this dream, as for them and their children it often cannot become reality.  This year's election have made that frustration readily apparent.

I would hope that as one of the premier school systems in the State, that OCS would be able to buck this trend, and provide opportunities for students from all backgrounds to succeed.  Instead, it looks like this is not the case—top level classes (IB and AP) appear to be largely populated by children from relatively affluent and well educated white families  This is simply not right.  Is it really the case that not a single African-American student was eligible for the National Honors Society?

I'd love to hear from you about what the schools are and can do to help close this gap.  

Sincerely

Mark Peifer
Professor of Biology
pei...@unc.edu
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[Peifer, Mark A]

Dear Superindent Wirt and Principal Blackmon

I wrote to each of you as the last school year was ending about the achievement gap​ apparent as students graduated from Cedar Ridge this past spring, and never heard back from either of you.  I realize it was a busy time for you both then, but would appreciate a response.  I remain convinced Cedar Ridge and our school system can do more to provide equal opportunities for all of our students.  I hope the County Commissioners and School Board are also committed to this goal and can provide feedback about how to achieve it.

Sincerely

Mark Peifer 

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From: Peifer, Mark A
Sent: Thursday, June 2, 2016 4:42 PM
To: todd...@orange.k12.nc.us; heather....@orange.k12.nc.us; ocb...@orangecountync.gov
Cc: Graig and Jen Meyer
Subject: Cedar Ridge High and Orange County Schools can do better to close the achievement gap

 

[Heather Blackmon]

Mr. Peifer,
I sincerely apologize for not getting back to you in June.  The achievement gap is one of the #1 focus areas for both Cedar Ridge and Orange County School's.  It is apparent not only in your observations, but in our data as well that we clearly must narrow, and eventually close this gap.  Like you, I believe this can be done through more differentiation in instruction, greater student choice, and scaffolding learning to level the playing field for all of our students.  This is Cedar Ridge's top goal in it's School Improvement Plan for the next two years.  Our School Improvement Team meetings are open to the public, and I would love for you to be part of these discussions of best strategies and practices to achieve this goal.  Our next meeting is on September 20th at 4:15.  It will most likely be a long meeting, and you are welcome to join at any point.  I appreciate that parents like you see this as an area for improvement at Cedar Ridge, and I assure you, we are prepared to attack it.  Thank you again for getting back to us.  Please always feel free to share ideas and opinions with me.  We need this feedback in order to make our schools the top in the state.

Hope to see you soon!