Equal Opportunity in the Fort Wayne Community Schools: A ...

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Appendix GStaff Analysis of Data Pertaining to Faculty Desegregation, Fort WayneCommunity Schools—1976-77 School YearU.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Midwestern Regional OfficeBackgroundIn a Nov. 17, 1975, letter to FWCS SuperintendentLester L. Grile, Kenneth A. Mines, Region VDirector of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) ofthe U.S. Department of Health, Education, andWelfare, stated:[that the school district's] practice of assigningminority group faculty to schools attendedpredominantly by minority group studentshas caused or increased the racialidentifiability of 34 of Fort Wayne's schools asintended primarily for children of one race.Based on this determination, Mines told Grile thatthe FWCS faculty assignment practices constituteda violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of1964 and of HEW regulations, at 45 C.F.R. §80.OCR told the FWCS to submit a facultydesegregation plan that:must provide for the reassignment of facultyso that the ratio of minority group teachers ineach school is substantially the same as theratio throughout the District. (See appendix Aof this report, p. 2 of Mines letter.)Beyond that, according to a Sept. 23, 1976, letterfrom Lloyd R. Henderson, Director of OCR's Elementaryand Secondary Education Division, toSupt. Grile, the district also agreed that:faculty will be assigned so that at each schoolthere will be a substantially equal admixtureof teachers according to experience, teachingskills, and post-graduate degrees***.In the same letter, Henderson also asked the districtto provide, by Oct. 15, 1976, the following:a revised list of teacher assignments for1976-77 as they become finalized at theopening of school. The list should include abreakdown of teachers assigned to eachschool according to race, educational degrees,certificates and experience. (See appendix A,pp. 1,2 of Henderson letter.)According to documents received by the Commission'sMidwestern Regional Office from the OCRCleveland office, Superintendent Grile sent onlypart of the requested data. The superintendent'sdata included the number of black teachers byschool and a list of the 18 black teachers transferredfor the 1976-77 school year, including theiryears of experience, degrees, and certificates. Thedata, however, pertained only to elementaryschools. Thus, according to OCR records providedCommission staff, the district sent OCR no dataregarding "educational degrees, certificates, andexperience" of the remaining black elementaryteachers (43 other than the 18 for which datawere provided), and no data whatsoever regardingwhite and other minority teachers in the system,including all teachers at the secondary level.Five and one-half months later, on Mar. 18, 1977,Orrie Barr, of the OCR Cleveland office, wroteSuperintendent Grile, asking that he send, by Apr.15, the rest of the data requested by Henderson inSeptember 1976, and projections for the 1977-78school year.According to documents received from OCR, thesuperintendent responded on Apr. 13 with a list ofall elementary schools showing numbers ofteachers in each school by race, degrees earned,years of experience, and certification. Again, nocomparable data were supplied regarding secondaryschools.Analysis of DataBased on these data Commission staff have calculated,for each elementary school, the percentageof minority teaching staff, percentage of teachershaving master's degrees, and the average numberof years teaching experience of teachers in eachschool, as compared with the minority percentageof each school's total student enrollment (see tableG-l of this appendix).In general the data indicate that the 12 elementaryschools having high minority enrollment (morethan the district-wide elementary minority enrollmentpercentage of 20.8 percent) also tend tohave higher proportions of minorities amongteaching staff, lower proportions of all teachers44
having master's degrees, and less experiencedteaching staffs. (Data on certification of teacherswere not analyzed because information interpretingthese data was not included in the district'slist.)Specifically, all but two of the high minority elementaryschools also have more than the districtwideproportion of minority teachers. By comparison,27 of the 33 low minority elementaryschools have less than the district-wide proportionof minority teachers. While 8 of the 12 highminority schools have a proportion of teacherswith master's degrees which is less than the district-wideaverage, the opposite is true of the lowminority schools. Twenty-two of the district's 33low minority schools have a proportion of teacherswith master's degrees which is more than the district-wideaverage. Similarly, 8 of the 12 highminority schools have faculties with less than thedistrict-wide average years of teaching experience,while 21 of the district's 33 low minority schoolshave faculties with more than the district-wideaverage years of teaching experience.When Commission staff submitted these data tothe Chi Square test of statistical significance, thefollowing relationships were found:a) The relationship between the race of teachersand the racial composition of the schools towhich they were assigned was significant at the.001 level (x 2= ll.O5). That is, minority teacherswere disproportionately assigned to schools havinghigh minority enrollment.b) The relationship between teachers' academiccredentials and racial composition of their assignedschools was significant at the .001 level(X 2 =14.55). That is, teachers having master'sdegrees were disproportionately assigned toschools having low minority enrollments.c) The relationship between teachers' length ofteaching experience and the racial compositionof their assigned schools was significant at the.001 level (x 2 =18.56). That is, teachers havingmore years of experience were disproportionatelyassigned to schools having low minority enrollments.It should be noted that tests of statistical significance,such as the Chi Square, indicate neitherthe causes nor intent behind the relationshipsunder examination. "Statistical significance" refersto the likelihood that a given relationship betweentwo variables is a random occurrence. In each ofthe three relationships between variables examinedhere, therefore, the likelihood that any of thesepatterns occurred by chance is less than one outof 1,000.The Chi Square tests reported here were basedupon data for each of the district's 757 reportedelementary teachers, and are presented in table G-2 of this appendix.The unequal distribution of teacher characteristicsin the schools is directly related to the racial compositionof student bodies. In the case of assignmentof minority teachers, the effect is to contributeto the identifiability of some schools asbeing intended for one racial group. In the case ofthe distribution of teachers' credentials and experienceamong schools, the effect is to provide alower level of resources to schools currently havinghigh minority enrollments.Based on this analysis, it is clear that among elementaryschools in the FWCS there is not yet "asubstantially equal admixture of teachers" accordingto their race, experience, and credentials.45
Page 1 and 2: CR 1.2:Sch6/24Equal Opportunity int
Page 3 and 4: LETTER OF TRANSMITTALINDIANA ADVISO
Page 5 and 6: PREFACESchool desegregation has bee
Page 7 and 8: THE UNITED STATES COMMISSION ON CIV
Page 9 and 10: Chapter OneThe ineffectiveness of t
Page 11: facilities, lack of comparability i
Page 14 and 15: tion for the Peabody evaluation (se
Page 16 and 17: minority enrollment of 35 percent a
Page 18 and 19: leadership. 4 Below are some of the
Page 20 and 21: the schools, and the school board m
Page 22 and 23: icular materials are being addresse
Page 24 and 25: Appendix ACommunications Between HE
Page 26 and 27: Page 3 - Mr. Lester L. Grilewas set
Page 28 and 29: Mr. Frank KruegerPage TwoMarch 22,
Page 30 and 31: Mr. Frank KruegerPage FourMarch 22,
Page 32 and 33: FORT WAYNE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS1230 SO
Page 34 and 35: June 22, 1976Mr. Krueger - 3even th
Page 36 and 37: Page 2 - Superintendent Grile(3) th
Page 38 and 39: SchoolAbbettAdamsAnthony WayneArlin
Page 40 and 41: TRANSFER - BLACK TEACHERS - FOR 197
Page 42 and 43: Appendix CCommunications Regarding
Page 44 and 45: DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION. AN
Page 46 and 47: The plan which we now present for c
Page 48 and 49: special instructional facilities. N
Page 50 and 51: Appendix FUrban League Alternative
Page 54 and 55: Table G-1COMPARISON OF MINORITY STU
Page 56: U. S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTSWAS

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