BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
High dropout and truancy rates, poor academic scores and spotty community involvement have led to a crisis in Cincinnati Public Schools, Cincinnati NAACP leaders said Monday.
The civil-rights group will have a community meeting Saturday in the West End for citizens to brainstorm ways to improve the 50,000-student district.
Organizers expect more than 200 people to attend "Cincinnati Public Schools: A System in Crisis" at the West Cincinnati Presbyterian Church.
"These are horrible conditions for our students to be learning in," said Dr. Milton Hinton, president of the Cincinnati chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "When you look at the statistics and what appears to be the indisposition of the board to have real community involvement, it truly is an educational crisis."
Dr. Hinton says evidence of that crisis includes:
A failure of many students to advance. A third of students in kindergarten through third grade do not get promoted.
Poor proficiency-test scores and dropping SAT scores.
Crumbling school buildings and decade-old textbooks.
High dropout and truancy rates. Several high schools have as many as a quarter of their students absent or late daily. About half of all high-schoolers who enter the ninth grade in Cincinnati Public Schools drop out by senior year.
Poor turnout to the district's public meetings and a low response to a recent district survey of families, community and business leaders and district employees about their preferred qualities for a new superintendent.
School board members are indifferent to public input, and the public greets that indifference with mistrust, Dr. Hinton added. School board President Arthur Hull questioned the NAACP's characterization of district problems as a "crisis" and defended the board's relationship with the public. But he embraced efforts to improve the district.
"I don't think the majority of people mistrust the district," he said.
"None of us are satisfied or happy with the dropout rate and low proficiency scores. We are all seeking ways and means to find improvement in those areas. I welcome any suggestions, thoughts or observations as to how we can collectively get better."
