According to Duke's service learning program director David Malone, it's easier to put a man on the moon than it is to get public school fifth graders to meet grade-level reading standards. As the moderator of a panel discussion about the Durham Public Schools (DPS) in Gross Hall on Tuesday night, Malone highlighted the complexity of delivering quality public school education.
"People think education is not as hard as, say, engineering," Malone, who is also the director of undergraduate studies in the Program in Education, said. "And then I'll say to them: 'Which do you think is going to happen first: are we going to put a man on the moon, or are we going to solve the fact that a third of our fifth graders can't read at grade level? Well, we've already put a man on the moon, but we still haven't solved the problem of getting kids to read at their grade levels."
"Challenges for Durham Public Schools" featured former DPS Board of Directors vice-chair and current Durham City Councilman Steve Schewel and current board members Minnie Forte-Brown and Nancy Cox. The event was organized by the Bass Connections theme in Education and Human Development and co-sponsored by the Duke Community Service Center and DukeEngage.
The discussion touched on numerous issues facing DPS, from the proliferation of charter schools in North Carolina to ongoing cuts in the state education budget. The panelists also highlighted the challenges specific to Durham: high poverty rates in the student body, with some schools providing free or reduced lunch to more than 90 percent of their students, and an alarming "re-segregation" trend brought on by private and charter schools. But despite many of the financial difficulties the district is facing, Forte-Brown said she was "proud" of DPS' ability to leverage its diversity to put Durham students on the college track.
"Public school is the only place in America where all children can come regardless of ability and economics," Forte-Brown said. "What I'm excited about at Durham Public Schools is that we're breaking the link between poverty and low academic achievement. We are moving all our children, including children of color and who are in poverty, from mediocrity to excellence."
The panelists emphasized that charter schools are only beneficial if they admit a diverse cross-section of the city to avoid re-segregation.
"Charter schools don't have to provide busing, hot lunches, or services for students with (disabilities)," Schewel said. "Students who need those services, students who more often than not live in poverty, come to us. So for me the essential question is will the charter schools in Durham share the burden of poverty?"
The panelists invited Duke students to be part of Durham Public Schools' future.
"Go out and tutor, help with school clubs, attend school board meetings," Cox said. "Our kids need to see you. They need to see success and they need to know that they, too, can be like you."
As a new university-wide initiative in fostering team-based interdisciplinary learning, Bass Connections programs involve group research projects, cross-disciplinary coursework and interactive lectures and special events.
Economics professor Thomas Nechyba, leader of the "Education and Human Development" theme of Bass Connections, said weekly events like this one are designed to expand the reach of the Bass Connections project and make some of the theoretical concepts studied in the "Education and Human Development" theme more tangible.
Duke senior Melissa Day, who regularly tutors at Watts Elementary School, said the discussion prompted her to think about the effects of public and charter schools on community dynamics.
"I'm going to research charter schools and the other topics the panel brought up tonight," Day said. "There's a lot of complexity in these issues that is not always evident on the surface."