The complaint filed with a U.S. civil rights office contends the test fosters segregation.
By STEPHEN HEGARTY
Published August 29, 2003
The Florida NAACP is accusing the state of discriminating against African-American students by perpetuating a system of segregation and unequal education.
In a complaint filed this week with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, the NAACP called on Florida officials to stop using the FCAT test in graduation and retention decisions until the achievement gap between black and white students is narrowed.
The 32-page complaint is a broad, sharply worded challenge to the state's education system and to Gov. Jeb Bush's school accountability reforms. Much of its wording echoes the arguments made generations ago in desegregation lawsuits.
When asked about the complaint Thursday, Education Commissioner Jim Horne criticized the NAACP. "The organization has based their career on agitating, so this is probably what this is about."
Horne's use of the term "agitators" drew a quick reaction from Florida NAACP president Adora Obi Nweze.
"It sounded like George Wallace when he barred people from the school," Nweze said. "Don't call us "agitators.' Take a look at what we've said point by point and then ask if we are on point here."
Horne later apologized for using the word.
"I wish I hadn't said that. That's not me," Horne said. "But I feel like they're attacking Florida. It had a little bit of a sting. I guess I should have said that I'm agitated."
Horne said the Bush administration has done more to close the achievement gap than any other administration, citing statistics that show black students making gains on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the SAT.
The numbers were intended to counter statistics offered by the NAACP that show a troubling gap in achievement between black and white students.
Both sets of figures apparently are accurate. That illustrates the confounding nature of the achievement gap; even after gains, African-American students as a group lag behind their white peers.
The focus on racial disparities in student achievement is nothing new for Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Both school districts recently ended more than three decades of federal oversight for desegregation efforts, and both districts still monitor student enrollment and achievement by race.
"We've been looking at these kinds of numbers for a while," said Vyrle Davis, a former Pinellas school official who now chairs the African-American Voters Research and Education Committee. "The achievement gap is real. When you look at the (federal standards for academic progress), it's the African-American children who are failing."
The recently released No Child Left Behind statistics for Florida show that 62 percent of white students met state standards in reading last year. That compares to 30 percent of black students.
The gap in math was even worse.
Such statistics were the basis for a lawsuit filed against the Pinellas school district in 2000. The lawsuit alleges discrimination against Pinellas schoolchildren.
"I haven't seen their complaint, but the conclusions they're reaching sound accurate," said Guy Burns, the Tampa lawyer who filed the lawsuit for a St. Petersburg family.
The NAACP's decision to file its complaint with the Office of Civil Rights makes it different from a lawsuit, but it still has the potential to force change. Such complaints often lead to settlements that require specific remedies.
The Office of Civil Rights usually tells complainants within 30 days whether the case will result in an investigation, said Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education.
Gary Orfield, a Harvard University professor and researcher who has documented the resegregation of the nation's schools, said it is unclear what the civil rights office will do.
But he said it is likely there will be an investigation, "and I expect that it will turn up very disturbing relationships between the state's growing segregation and the test scores of various schools that will fuel discussion and policy debate."
The NAACP's Nweze said the group wants results.
"We're not interested in sparring with them. That's not going to help children," she said. "We want them to do something about it."
- Staff writer Alisa Ulferts and researcher Dierdre Morrow contributed to this report.
Below are statistics the Florida NAACP cites as evidence of an achievement gap, along with scores from the most recent FCAT.
- African-Americans made up 24.5 percent of Florida's students last year, but they accounted for 10.4 percent of students in gifted programs.
- 71.2 percent of white students graduated in 2001; it was 51.9 percent for black students.
- Black students were over-represented in nine of 11 special education categories in 2001.
- 62 percent of white students who took this year's FCAT scored at or above grade level on the reading section. Only 30 percent of black students reached that standard.
- 63 percent of white students in Pinellas County scored at or above grade level on math. That compares with 22 percent of black students.
