effects of segregation on African American high school Seniors' academic achievement, The

Journal of Negro Education, The, Fall 1999 by Mickelson, Roslyn Arlin, Heath, Damien

The defendant in both the Capacchione and reactivated Swann case (now also known as Belk et al. v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District) was the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.5 CMS took the position that although its good faith efforts had made substantial progress in eliminating the vestiges of the dual system, the district was not yet unitary. Judge Robert Potter consolidated all the cases into one, and arguments were heard in spring 1999. In September 1999, Potter declared CMS to be unitary and ordered the immediate end to the district's desegregation efforts. He also enjoined CMS from using race-conscious policies or practices in any of its future actions and awarded nominal damages to the White plaintiffs. Both the Swann plaintiffs and the school system appealed this decision.

In December 1999, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an indefinite stay of the lower court's order pending the outcome of the appeal process. Eleven months later, in November 2000, a three-judge panel overturned the lower court's decision declaring the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to be unitary. The judges remanded the case back to the federal district court along with clear criteria for weighing the evidence and applying relevant case law in its deliberations. Two months later, however, in January 2001, the full Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to hear the case en banc, thereby reinstating the district court judge's original September 1999 unitary decision. The full Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in February 2001. Numerous observers on both sides predict that ultimately the case will return to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ability Grouping and Tracking in the CMS System

At least since the late 1970s, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg public school system has separated students for instruction by placing them into ability groups and tracks. For example, until 1997, elementary gifted and talented CMS students were pulled out of their regular classrooms for supplemental education. Currently, a new elementary program for the gifted operates in self-contained classrooms within selected schools. Several elementary magnet schools have been designated as entirely gifted and talented schools. Academic tracking is also evident throughout CMS secondary schools. With the exception of most classes in one "open" middle school, all CMS secondary mathematics, science, English, and social studies classes are tracked.6

Track placement and student race intersect in predictable ways in the CMS system. On the one hand, the district's special education classes are overwhelmingly Black; classes in the lowest non-special education tracks (termed "regular" classes) are also majority Black. The top academic tracks, on the other hand, are composed of classes whose enrollments range from 100% to 80% non-Black (CMS, 1997-1999). Consequently, the degree of desegregated education experienced by students in a given CMS secondary school is not necessarily determined by the racial composition of the secondary schools they attended; rather, the amount of desegregated education they experience is affected more directly by the track in which they learn.