en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en pl en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en de en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en
For millions of children across the country, where they go to school is largely determined by where they live. Public school districts have historically assigned students to schools located in or near their neighborhoods.
Cleveland is trying a different approach by integrating school choice into its district model, but you could say the city’s school choice movement began in the 1960s, a time of racial tension that led to the Cleveland school system we see today.
Cleveland Leadership in the 1960s
George Forbes is one of the most prominent names in modern Cleveland history. Elected to city council in 1963, Forbes was one of several black politicians who led Cleveland through the nation’s Civil Rights Era, and through the fall out of desegregation in the city’s schools.
“I hadn’t been in office, but three or four months and we were confronted with this big issue of equality in schools,” Forbes said.
At the time, there were nearly 135,000 students in the district. Black schools throughout the city were overcrowded, but instead of integrating school populations, the district chose to build new ones – keeping black children isolated.
“The Board of Education had taken the position that they were going to build new schools and decided that Stephen E. Howe was one of the places they were going to build schools,” Forbes explained.
During its construction, Stephen E. Howe Elementary School, in the Glenville neighborhood that Forbes represented, became the site of protests led by civil rights activists.
On April 7, 1964, 27-year-old white protestor Rev. Bruce Klunder was killed as he and others laid themselves in front of and behind the tracks of a bulldozer at the construction site.
Klunder’s death slowed the school’s completion, but it didn’t stop it, and racial tensions grew, Forbes said, as African Americans protested and boycotted more black schools.
“It came from people, the groundswell,” he said. “We don’t want the school. We’re not going to go there.”
More than a decade later, a federal court ordered Cleveland to bus kids into other neighborhoods to achieve racial balance in the schools.
School Choice Comes to Cleveland
Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eric Gordon said the decision resulted in the first instance of school choice in the city: white flight and wealth flight from the district into the surrounding suburbs.
“It was a tough form, right?” Gordon said. “I had to make a choice as a parent whether I would send my child to the assigned school across the city for integration purposes, or whether I would choose to pay for a parochial or private school, or whether I would choose to move out of the city.”
“It was absolutely a form of choice,” he added.
The exodus of white, middle income families led to a massive decline in enrollment in Cleveland schools. Between 1980 and 1990, CMSD went from 92,000 to 69,000 students. That decline strained resources and concentrated poverty in the district.
After years of mismanagement and financial turmoil, legislation in the mid-90s led to the introduction of school vouchers in Cleveland—one of the first cities in the country to incorporate the form of choice that give children public funds to attend a private school.
Then came charters, which Gordon said led to the departure of another 10,000 kids from the district.
“All while the school district was saying we will assign you to xyz school,” Gordon said. “You don’t have any choice inside the district.”
Then Comes ‘The Cleveland Plan’
Gordon’s tenure as CEO and the implementation of a new education reform plan—known as The Cleveland Plan—marked a change in that culture.
Implemented five years ago, The Cleveland Plan allowed parents to send their children to any school in the district, including CMSD-sponsored charters.
District enrollment is up for the first time in 40 years, Gordon said, to 39,000 students and achievement is starting to follow.
“Families were choosing. They had been choosing for decades. The only place they weren’t choosing was CMSD because we were saying you shouldn’t be allowed to choose and we were saying we will assign you where you will go to school, very much like traditional school districts across the country have always done,” Gordon said.
“Our notion was, if families are choosing, let’s get into the choice game, let’s compete, let’s be part of the choice,” he added.
Does Choice Lead to Academic Success?
In the majority minority district, CMSD’s scores on state report cards are up, but its overall grade is an F.
The four-year graduation rate has increased and so has the number of K through 3rd grade students reading at grade level, but when you break down the scores by race, the numbers tell a different story.
A quarter of African American students in the district are meeting English Language Arts learning goals compared to about half of their white peers. The rates are almost identical when it comes to math, and only marginally better for the district’s Hispanic population.
Dr. William Sampson of DePaul University does not believe choice leads to academic success for minority students. Nationwide, Sampson said vouchers, charters, and other forms of choice have resulted in a new surge of segregation in the education system that’s fueled poor academic outcomes.
White, middle-income parents have the means to take advantage of options, he added, leaving minority and low-income students behind, students who need more resources to succeed.
“It’s not that the presence of white kids has some sort of magic power over the quality of education,” Sampson explained. “Unfortunately, white folks aren’t that great.”
“It’s that the resources typically follow white kids, whether they be financial resources, [or] student support services.”
Choice and Competition in the Classroom
But it’s not just the loss of resources that Sampson said hurts minority students in this era of school choice. It’s the loss of opportunity for a child to compete, Sampson said, and overcome the racism and the inferiority they’re taught by society.
“When you grow up next door to a kid, or in the next classroom or the next row in a classroom, and you’re a black kid and you’re doing better in class than that white kid, then you start to question whether or not you are inherently inferior,” Sampson explained.
“You realize that you can do just as well as this white kid,” he said. “That dispels that self-hatred, and that’s critical in our society.”
That’s what black Clevelanders wanted in the 1960s, Forbes said, a mixing of races in schools that would help all children learn they were more alike than different.
But Forbes said the city’s first experience with school choice—the white flight of the Civil Rights era– is still evident in Cleveland public schools today.
The current state of the district makes it difficult for Forbes to believe that minority students are any better off than they were when he attended a segregated Memphis school during his youth, either because of the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown versus Board of Education decision that ended legal segregation in public schools, or the fight he helped lead for integration.
“It didn’t work,” Forbes said of Cleveland’s desegregation struggle. “If I had to do it again, I would not have done it.”
“But this was part of the times,” he went on. “It was happening all over the country. Education was at an apex and that was what black folks demanded, but we did not get…we got the Supreme Court decisions. We got those things, but when you look back at it, it is what it is.”
Gordon disagreed with both Sampson and Forbes. With Sampson on the outcomes Cleveland children are achieving, and with Forbes on the success of the city’s Civil Rights struggles.
“Have we achieved the outcome yet that we desire for every kid? No,” he said. “I would say that the system that I’m running is not yet what I want for every child, a black child, a white child, a Hispanic child.”
“But,” he added, “we are actively working on it because of the really tough decisions that George Forbes and his peers made decades ago.”
Gordon said choice works for Cleveland, but the legacy of segregation, of inequity in the school system is a battle the district could face for years to come.
Teaching Cleveland Digital is a repository of writing, pictures and videos to support the teaching of Cleveland, Northeast Ohio and Ohio @ www.teachingcleveland.org. View all posts by
Author Posted on November 15, 2016November 15, 2017Categories Primary and Secondary Education
Previous Previous post: George Voinovich Era as Cleveland Mayor aggregation
Next Next post: The Arts in Northeast Ohio aggregation
History of the Cleveland-area’s Hispanic population and where most live now, Sept 27, 2022
Great Lakes Science Center marks 25 years, keeps evolving, educating, entertaining, Cleveland.com, September 27, 2022
Candidates for Cuyahoga County Executive: Chris Ronayne and Lee Weingart debate. The City Club of Cleveland 9.20.22
A bumpy road to regionalism by Jay Miller, Crain’s Cleveland Business 9/19/22
Updating the list of Cleveland’s most influential people: Brent Larkin July 17, 2022
“A Man is Passing” Poem written on the death of CLE Mayor Tom L Johnson 1912 by Edmund Vance Cooke
11 weeks after Jackie Robinson’s debut, Larry Doby arrived By Frederic J. Frommer/Washington Post July 5, 2022
Will Cleveland Ever Develop Its Lakefront? Cleveland Magazine August 2022
The Rise and Fall of the Cleveland Air Races by Vince Guerrieri June, 2022
A look back at 9 previous downtown Cleveland lakefront proposals that didn’t move ahead – Plain Dealer May 30, 2022
Myths surround ‘Untouchable’ lawman Eliot Ness. What’s the truth? Washington Post June 1, 2022
Tour the tunnels below Cleveland’s Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument – May 3, 2022
CLEVELAND: AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW from Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (1987)
Cleveland’s 50 Most Important Moments of the Past 50 Years – Cleveland Magazine, April 2022
Categories Select Category Timeline of Cleveland/NE Ohio The Western Reserve 1796-1820    “Cleveland’s First Neighborhood – The Flats”    Along the Cuyahoga    Connecticut Western Reserve    Explorations Pre 1788    Lorenzo Carter    Moses Cleaveland    Oliver H. Perry/Battle of Lake Erie/War of 1812    Samuel and Hannah Huntington    Speculation, Sales and Real Estate    The Firelands    Women in the Western Reserve Pre Industrial 1820-1865    Building the Railroads    Cleveland Annexation of Ohio City    Columbus Bridge Street War    Leonard Case Sr./Leonard Case Jr.    The Abolition Movement    The Civil War and Cleveland    The Civil War and Ohio    The Erie and Ohio Canals Industrial Revolution 1865-1900    Amasa Stone    Charles F. Brush    Cleveland and the Gilded Age-student documentary    Cleveland in the Gilded Age by Dr. John Grabowski    Cleveland’s Millionaires    Flora Stone Mather    Henry Chisholm and Cleveland Rolling Mill Company    Henry Flagler in Cleveland    James A. Garfield    Jeptha Wade    John D. Rockefeller    John Hay in Cleveland    Mark Hanna    Maternity Homes    Millionaires Row    Municipal Government in Cleveland 1876-1900    Orphanages, 1851-1933    Philanthropy and Charity    Samuel Mather    School Reform in 1892    Settlement Movement    The Flats 1880 to 1920    William McKinley Progressive Era: 1900-1920    “Cleveland in 1912” The Lecture (Video)    1900-1919 A Retrospective Year-by-Year Timeline    Brand Whitlock    Charles E. Ruthenberg and Socialism in Cleveland    Charles Willard “Billy” Stage    Cleveland 1912: Civitas Triumphant    Cleveland Economic History -The First 200 Years    Cleveland Foundation    Collinwood School Fire    Daniel Morgan    Edward W. Bemis    Frederic C. Howe    George Barnsdale Cox    Harris Cooley    Hazen Pingree    Henry George    Henry Thomas Hunt Mayor of Cincinnati    Herbert C. Bigelow    How Cleveland Women Got the Vote    Misc Articles on the Progressive Period in Ohio    Myron Herrick    Newton D. Baker    Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1912    Peter Witt    Photo Gallery    Ralph Hayes    Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones    The City Club    The Group Plan (The Mall)    Theodore E. Burton    Tom L. Johnson    World War 1 in Cleveland City Managers Political Bosses 1920’s    1920-1929 A Retrospective Year-by-Year Timeline    Charles W. Chestnutt    City Manager Government    Cleveland Clinic Origins    Fred Kohler    Garrett A. Morgan    Jane Edna Hunter    Linda Eastman and the Cleveland Public Library    Margaret Bourke-White    Maurice Maschke    Police Actions Against Asians in 1920s Cleveland    Political Bosses    The Cleveland Orchestra    The Metroparks    Walter Burr Gongwer    Warren G. Harding in Ohio    William Hopkins 1930’s    1930-1939 A Retrospective Year-by-Year Timeline    Eliot Ness    Frances Payne Bolton    Great Lakes Exposition    Harold Burton    John O. Holly    Public Housing / Ernest Bohn    Steel Industry    The Depression in Cleveland/Ohio    The New Deal in Ohio    The Van Sweringens    WPA in Cleveland African American Migration    African American History in Cleveland    Black Political Power in Ohio Pre World War 2    Notable Blacks of Cleveland from Cleveland Memory World War 2 – Post War 1940’s    1940-1949 A Retrospective Year-by-Year Timeline    Bill Veeck and the 1948 Cleveland Indians    East Ohio Gas Explosion 1944    Frank Lausche    Karamu House    World War 2 in Cleveland 1950’s Suburbanism    1950-1959 A Retrospective Year-by-Year Timeline    An Overview of the Suburbs    Civil Defense in Cleveland    Cleveland Economic History -The First 200 Years    Cleveland Museum of Art    Cyrus Eaton    Dorothy Fuldheim    Housing    Rock and Roll    The Creation of the Highway System in NE Ohio    Urban Renewal/Erieview    Viktor Schreckengost Carl Stokes – Civil Rights 1960’s    1960-1969 A Retrospective Year-by-Year Timeline    Carl Stokes    Cleveland in the 1960s incl. Mike Roberts Essay    Cleveland’s Muhammad Ali Summit, 45 Years Later    Cuyahoga River Fire    Hough Riots    Lee-Seville Public Housing Controversy    Martin Luther King Jr. in Cleveland    Robert F. Kennedy Speech At Cleveland City Club    School Desegregation Crisis of 1963-64    Stanley Tolliver    The Glenville Riots 1968 Ralph Perk – Dennis Kucinich 1970’s    1970-1979 A Retrospective Year-by-Year Timeline    Cleveland in the 1970s (incl. Mike Roberts essay)    Community Organizing in Cleveland 1975-1985    Dennis Kucinich    James Rhodes    Kent State Shootings May 4, 1970    More than a bus ride: Deseg. of the Cleve Schools    Muny Light vs. Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co.    Ralph Perk    WMMS-FM 1980’s – 1990’s    “The Women Who Would Be Mayor” by Marian Morton    1980-1999 A Retrospective Year-by-Year Timeline    Cleveland in the 1980’s – Mike Roberts    Cleveland in the 1990’s – Mike Roberts    Cleveland in the 2000’s – Mike Roberts    George Forbes    George Voinovich Era as Mayor    Howard Metzenbaum    James Rokakis    John Frederick Seiberling    John Glenn    Louis Stokes    Michael R. White Era as Mayor    Playhouse Square    Richard Celeste    Robert Hughes    Stephanie Tubbs Jones    The Struggle For Stability by Dr. Thomas Campbell 2000s    Frank Jackson    Jane Campbell Books We Suggest    Books We Suggest Cleveland Cleveland History E-Books    Clevelands History E-Books Cleveland History Self Study: Syllabus of Essays    Cleveland History Self Study: A 5 Week Syllabus Cleveland Politician Interview Series    Cleveland Politician Interview Series Columbus Documentaries E-Books Elegant Cleveland Ethnic History of Cleveland    African Americans in Cleveland    Chinese in Cleveland    Cleveland Cultural Gardens    Eastern Orthodox in Cleveland    Ethnic Settlement in Cleveland       Hispanics in Northeast Ohio    Germans in Cleveland    Hungarians in Cleveland    Irish in Cleveland    Jews in Cleveland    Mormons in Cleveland    Polish in Cleveland    Protestants in Cleveland    Religion in Cleveland    Roman Catholics in Cleveland    Russians in Cleveland    Turks in Cleveland    Ukrainians in Cleveland History Day Live Events NE Ohio Neighborhoods and Their History    Asia Town from Fresh Water Cleveland    Beachwood    Bedford and Bedford Heights    Broadway/Slavic Village    Buckeye Neighborhood    Campus District    Central/Kinsman    Chagrin Falls    City of Cleveland/NE Ohio Neighborhoods    Cleveland Heights    Collinwood/Waterloo    Detroit Shoreway    Downtown    East Cleveland    Glenville    Gordon Square    Hough    Hudson    Lakewood    Little Italy    Lyndhurst    Mid Town    Mount Pleasant    Newburgh    North Olmsted    North Ridgeville    Ohio City    Olmsted Falls    Parma    Playhouse Square    Rocky River    Shaker Heights    South Euclid    Tremont    University Circle    Warrensville    West Park/Kamm’s Corners    Westlake Northeast Ohio Public Policy Forums Policies    2014 Cuyahoga County Executive Election    2014 Ohio Governor Election    Adult/College Education    African American Political Power in the 21st Cent    Agriculture    Cincinnati    Cuyahoga County    Energy    Environment    Foster Care in Northeast Ohio    Greater Cleveland    Healthcare Delivery    Healthcare Economic Opportunity    Housing    Immigration    Journalism       Roldo Bartimole    Lake and River Fronts    Manufacturing/Technology    Minority Participation in the New Economy    News Aggregator Archives    Ohio    Ohio Constitution    Overview    Philanthropy in NE Ohio    Planning    Primary and Secondary Education    Professional Sports    Regional Govt vs Home Rule    Regionalism    State of the County/City/State of Downtown    The Arts    Transportation    Voting Rights in Ohio    Water Teaching Cleveland    Introduction Teaching Cleveland Digital Media    About Us The Best Uncategorized    Teaching Cleveland Classes Video Candidate Election Forums Cincinnati Cleveland Photos League of Women Voters Ohio Congressional Redistricting Pittsburgh Women History in Cleveland