Intentional Integration Initiative (III) Yr. 3 Review: A Path Forward

Dr. Kevin F. Gilbert, Acting Superintendent of Schools

May 30, 2024

www.somsd.k12.nj.us I A district that celebrates students, community and diversity

Agenda

Briefly review the South Orange and Maplewood School District’s Intentional Integration Initiative and the Path Forward

• Review the Alves Group Year 3 Report
• Discuss the Implementation Effects and Integration Variances for grades K- 2 for all elementary schools including Delia Bolden Elementary
• Discuss key results of the algorithm implementation in promoting race-neutral SES integration and avoiding racial/ethnic isolation in Grades 6-7 in Maplewood and South Orange Middle Schools
• Recommendations for the 2024/25 school year

Introduction

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• The District has been working collaboratively with our consultant the Alves Group to ensure that the District complies with the Board of Education’s goal of promoting socioeconomic integration while avoiding racial/ethnic isolation in the District’s elementary and middle schools.

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• The distinctive feature of the District’s residential-based and race-neutral assignment algorithm is that it eliminates the District’s individual school attendance boundaries in favor of assigning students to a school that is nearest to the student’s home that has an available seat for their particular socioeconomic tier (Low, Medium, High).

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• The goal is to keep each school’s SES composition within a plus or minus 5% variance of the SES composition for the specified grade that is a part of the initiative in the District as a whole.

Introduction Continued

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• Since its implementation within the South Orange Maplewood School District, the Intentional Integration Initiative has resulted in substantial increases in socioeconomic status (SES) integration and decreases in racial isolation within our communities. This program was designed to address longstanding disparities and segregation in the education system by promoting a more equitable distribution of students from diverse backgrounds.

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Three Year Trends in SES and Racial/Ethnic Integration

• Table 8 shows the degree to which each school’s Kindergarten SES composition has varied from the District average, beginning with the 2020-21 SY, when students were assigned based on attendance zones, and then for each of the three years of the III.
• The average SES variance across all schools has not exceeded 5 percentage points in any year, and the great majority of individual schools have remained within the +/-5 percentage point variance targets.

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Three Year Trends in SES and Racial/Ethnic Integration

• Table 9 shows the degree to which each school’s Kindergarten racial/ethnic composition has varied from the District average, beginning with the 2020-21 SY, when students were assigned based on attendance zones and then for each of the three years of the III.
• Under the prior attendance zone assignment plan, Black and White students were most disproportionately distributed among schools, we focus our discussion of those two groups.
• Following the introduction of the III, the under-representation of White students at Seth Boyden was greatly reduced, from a variance of -23 percentage points to one of -9 to -10 percentage points.
• The average White variance across all schools has fallen from 8 percentage points to 4-5 percentage points under III.
• The over-representation of Black students at Seth Boyden has also fallen markedly, from +25 percentage points under the assignment zone plan to +5 percentage points in the most current year.
• Under-representation of Black students at Clinton and Tuscan has also fallen.
• The average Black variance across all schools has fallen from 11 percentage points under the assignment zone plan to 3 percentage points in the most current III year.

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Table 8 & Table 9 - Three Year Trends in SES and Racial/Ethnic Integration

Intentional Integration Initiative - Kindergarten

Kindergarten Enrollment Information

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• The 23/24 SY was the third year that the algorithm was used to assign newly registered Kindergarten students as well as students that have been a part of the preschool program in the District.

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• There were eleven rounds of Kindergarten assignments (as of October 15, 2023); the assignments were based on official student registration provided by the III team.
• Assignments were made in accordance with each elementary school’s enrollment capacities that were determined by the District that included the maximum number of Kindergarten seats, the number of “hold” seats for special education and Multi-Language Learners students and finally the number of assignable seats for regular education students.

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Review/Recommendations

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• Planning: Ongoing discussions regarding a waitlist for those students who did not get assigned to their nearest school and would be interested in being reassigned if a seat became available for a student of their SES Tier at the nearest school.
• Planning: In a previous memo dated October 9th the consultants made a number of recommendations concerning the policy and implementation including the need for an appointed/dedicated waitlist manager who will report directly to the Superintendent and the ability to run and analyze beta tests based on 23/24 SY data. It is recommended that these be resolved before officially implementing a waitlist.
• Planning: Withdrawal data - it is recommended that the District provide real-time withdrawal information to the Alves Group. This procedural recommendation will enable the consultants and the District administrators to identify available seats, make integrative assignments on a timely basis, and facilitate the effective implementation of the future waitlist program.

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Sibling Priority Assignments

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• Sibling priority continues to be a key component of the SES Kindergarten assignment algorithm to ensure that newly enrolling students with older siblings who would be enrolled in grades 1 - 5 for the 23/24 SY would be pre-assigned to the same elementary school.

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• Sibling priority accounted for 38% of the 516 students assigned.

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• Of the students in the Low SES Tier, 31% were assigned based on Sibling priority, compared to 42% in the Medium SES Tier, and 39% in the High SES Tier.

Sibling Priority Assignments

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• There is a variation across schools in the percentage of students assigned based on Sibling priority, ranging from 30 % in Delia Bolden to over half (55%) in Tuscan Elementary.

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• It was noted that a large number of incoming Tuscan students with a sibling priority; more than filled all available Tuscan SES Tier 2 seats within the first round of assignments. (Please see Table 1)

How does Socioeconomic Status (SES)Play a Role in Integration?

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• The integration assignment algorithm sets enrollment targets such that the SES composition of each individual school’s Kindergarten class should vary by no more than +/-5 percentage points from the SES composition of Kindergarten enrollment across the entire District.
• Table 2 shows both the SES composition (percentages) of each school as well as how much each school’s SES composition varies from that of the Kindergarten enrollment across the District as a whole (variances) for both the current Kindergarten class as well as last year’s class. As noted above, we have shifted our analysis to represent October 15^th enrollment this year.
• Note that, while two schools have SES variances slightly beyond the targeted range for this year, the addition of just one student (of a certain SES level) to each of these schools would result in all schools being within the +/-5 SES target range.

Table 2 - Kindergarten

Does the district use race or ethnicity to integrate students?

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• No, the intentional integration algorithm does not have specific racial/ethnic integration targets and is race-neutral in its construction.
• Nevertheless, it is important to assess the degree to which the algorithm affects racial/ethnic isolation.
• Table 3 shows both the racial/ethnic composition (percentages) of each school as well as how much each school’s composition varies from that of the Kindergarten enrollment across the District as a whole (variances).
• Notable variances:
• Under-representation of Black students at Tuscan (-9 percentage points)
• Under-representation of White students at Seth Boyden (-10 percentage points.)

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Table 3 - Kindergarten

Closest School Assignments

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• The integration algorithm seeks to balance integration and school proximity by placing students in the closest school that has available seats for their SES Tier.
• Table 4 shows the percent of students assigned through the integration algorithm (excluding those assigned by sibling or administrative priority) that attend their first through sixth closest schools, by their SES Tier for the 2023-24 school year as well as for the 2022-23 year.
• About half (48%) were assigned to their closest school this year, ranging from 34% of Low SES students to 61% of High SES students.
• Percentage of Low SES students attending their closest school declined from 41% to 34%.
• Percentage of Medium SES students attending their closest school also declined, from 59% to 47%
• Percentage of High SES students attending their closest school increased from 52% to 61%, likely due to the new availability of Delia Bolden, offering a closer option in a High SES geographic area.

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****In 2022-23 there were only five available schools for Kindergarten assignment.

Table 4 - Kindergarten

Distance to Schools

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• Overall, for students assigned by the algorithm, the average distance to school declined, from 1.21 to 1.09 miles.
• The average distance for High SES students fell by the greatest amount, likely due to the new availability of Delia Bolden, offering a closer option in a High SES geographic area.
• The average distance for Medium SES students was unchanged and remained the shortest of the SES groups.
• The average distance for Low SES students increased very slightly and remained the longest of the SES groups.
• Over half (55%) of students assigned by the algorithm were assigned to a school less than a mile from their home, up from 51% in 2022-23.

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****In 2022-23 there were only five available schools for Kindergarten assignment.

Tables 5 & 6 - Kindergarten

Students Traveling More than Three Miles

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• Among students assigned by the algorithm, there were a small number (5) who were assigned to schools more than three miles from their home.
• All these students were late registrants, assigned on August 1 or later. They are Black, Low SES students, with Seth Boyden as their closest school.
• It was also noted that Seth Boyden has relatively few assignable seats, just 66, (due to construction) compared to 124 for South Mountain.
• The new availability of Delia Bolden did open another relatively nearby possibility, and, in fact, among Low SES students living near Seth Boyden, the number assigned to Bolden equaled that assigned to South Mountain, even though Bolden had many fewer assignable seats than did South Mountain.

Students Traveling More than Three Miles

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• An additional factor is the disproportionately late registration and assignment of Low SES and Black or Hispanic students, resulting in those students being assigned after many schools were at full capacity and, especially for Black students, when their nearest school (usually Seth Boyden) was at its maximum +5% variance target for Low SES students.
• Among students assigned by the algorithm, those assigned in later rounds were much more likely to be assigned further from their homes:
• Rounds 1 or 1A: on average 0.95 miles for students
• Round 2: on average 1.40 miles for students
• Round 3 or higher: on average 1.98 miles for students

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Elementary Schools

Withdrawals

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• Between the beginning of the 23/24 Kindergarten assignment process through October 15th, 28 students withdrew from the District.
• Overall the data indicates that 23 or 82% of the 28 withdrawals were assigned to either their older sibling’s school, their pre-assigned special education school, or to their first or second nearest school.
• When analyzed by racial/ethnic groups the 28 withdrawals included 2 (7%) Black students, 3 (11%) Hispanic students, 4 (14%) Asian students, 2 (7%) Multi-Racial students, and 17 (61%) White students.

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Intentional Integration Initiative - First Grade

Background Information - Grade 1

• The Kindergarten class originally assigned with the integration algorithm in 2022-23 moved up to Grade 1.
• The algorithm was used this year to place new students entering the District in Grade 1 in an integrated way, taking into account withdrawals of prior students. This process was challenging given reductions in the number of seats at Tuscan between last year’s Kindergarten class and this year’s Grade 1.
• Tuscan began the year with one more Grade 1 enrolled student than it had seat capacity, and no additional students could be assigned to Tuscan except those with priority assignment.

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• Table 10 shows the SES distribution of this year’s Grade 1 and compares it with the same student cohort when they were last year’s Kindergarten class.

Table 10

Grade 1

• The changes in average racial/ethnic variances across all schools were mixed depending on the racial/ethnic group examined (Table 11).

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• Tuscan: The largest increase in variance over the two years is for White students, driven primarily by the over-representation of White students at Tuscan (+15 percentage points, up from +11 in 2022-23), due to the additional assignment of White students to Tuscan due to sibling priority or administrative assignment.
• Clinton: Clinton has slight over-representation of Hispanic students, likely due to assignment of ELL students there, and under-representation of White students.
• Seth Boyden: Similarly, Seth Boyden continues to be over-represented among Black students and under-represented among White students.

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Table 11

Intentional Integration Initiative - Second Grade

Background - Grade 2

• 2023-24 was the first year in which the III was implemented for Grade 2.
• Table 12 shows the SES distribution of this year’s Grade 2 and compares it with the same student cohort when they were last year’s Grade 1.
• Seth Boyden: there is a small improvement in overall average SES variance across schools, although there exists small over-representation of Low SES students in Seth Boyden.
• South Mountain is somewhat over-represented in terms of High SES and under-represented in terms of Low SES students. Prior variances exceeding +/-5% in Tuscan and Clinton are now within the target range.

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Table 12

Grade 2

• Table 13 shows the racial/ethnic distribution of this year’s Grade 2 and compares it with the same student cohort when they were last year’s Grade 1.
• There is an improvement in overall average SES variance across schools, with many schools showing variances close to zero for several race/ethnic groups.
• The outlier continues to be Seth Boyden with an over-representation of Black students (+9 percentage point variance) and an under-representation of White students (-13 percentage point variance.)

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Table 13

Intentional Integration Initiative - Middle School (6th & 7th Grade)

6th Grade - Middle School Key Results

• The 23/24 SY was the second year in which 6th graders were assigned with III algorithm to either Maplewood Middle or South Orange Middle. As is done with the elementary grades that are a part of the algorithm (K, 1st, 2nd); students were pre-assigned if they had a sibling, required specific services for educational support, or were a Multi-Language Learner. �
• The District’s desire was to have roughly equal enrollment in each middle school; newly enrolled students were then assigned to the closest school with available seats in their SES Tier.

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• Tables 14 & 15 compare the SES and racial/ethnic distributions across both middle schools; showing a large degree of balance.

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6th Grade - Middle School Key Results

• In last year’s report we suggested, given the very small SES variances in 2022-23, that a larger variance (still within +/-5%) would be acceptable in order to assign more students to their closest school. That goal was accomplished this year, as the share of students assigned by the algorithm and assigned to their closest school increased from 89% last year to 94%.

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Tables 14

Tables 15

Distance to School

• The large majority (88%) of students were assigned to their closest school, including 94% of those assigned by the algorithm.
• The average distance to school was 1.28 miles for pre-assigned students and 1.10 miles for those assigned by the algorithm.
• The average distance to school was 1.15 miles for both students assigned to Maplewood Middle School and those assigned to South Orange.
• Average distances traveled did differ by socio-economic status and race/ethnicity (Table 16), with Low SES Tier student and Black students traveling further than other groups, approximately 1.4 miles from their homes.

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Tables 16

Withdrawals - 6th Grade

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• Between the beginning of the 2023-24 Grade 6 assignment process and Oct. 15^th, 24 Grade 6 students had withdrawn from the District, approximately 5 percent of those who had been assigned as of the beginning of school (although the vast majority of withdrawals occurred prior to school opening.) Analysis of the 24 withdrawals revealed that 25% were classified as Low SES, 42% were Medium SES and 33% were High SES. When analyzed by racial/ethnic group, the 33 withdrawals were 38% percent Black, 17% Hispanic, 4% Asian, 4% Multi-Race and 38% White students.
• The exact reason why the parents/guardians of these students did not enroll their child(ren) in their assigned school is not known, but analysis of the assignment data shows that 8% of withdrawals were pre-assigned to their older sibling’s school or assigned due to administrative placement. Of those students who had been assigned by the integration algorithm, 95% of withdrawing students had been assigned to their closest school.

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7th Grade - Middle School Key Results

• The 23/24 SY was the first year in which the III was implemented for 7th grade.

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• Tables 17 & 18 show the SES and racial/ethnic distribution of this year’s 7th graders distribution of this year’s 7th grade and compare it with the same student cohort when they were 6th graders. Both SES and racial/ethnic variances for each school remain very low and well within the +/-5% target range.

Tables 17 & 18

Intentional Integration Initiative

Status Review of Recommendations

Review/Recommendations

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These recommendations reflect the Year 3 Recommendations from the Alves Group for the 24-25 school year. Some recommendations have already been implemented.

• Completed: Kindergarten registration process should ideally begin in February with the Round 1 assignments being made in early April.
• It was noted that in the 22/23 SY the District did provide data earlier than in previous years.
• The District’s early registration dates this year for Kindergarten are: February 20th - March 8th
• Completed: The District has made significant progress in identifying students that are pre-assigned, especially those that are eligible for a “sibling priority”, which has reduced the number of corrections needed to be made later.
• Completed: Recommendation that the Alves Group and the District work collaboratively to assign students to Grade 3 as part of the Delia Bolden/Marshall unpairing & develop a timeline for the 24/25 SY assignments (K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th, & 8th).
• Completed: SOMSD Leaders meet with the Alves Group to develop a timeline/work plan for the 24/25 SY
• Completed: The Alves Group met with the III Team on January 23rd to go over the timelines for DB/Marshall Unpairing, Rising 6th graders, and Kindergarten Placements

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Review/Recommendations

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• Completed: As recommended by the consultants, self-reported data on students’ family annual income, parents’ highest educational attainment level, and household composition was collected for the 23/24 SY for students newly registered to the District.
• Completed: Previously, there wasn’t any self-reported SES information obtained from students who are currently enrolled in the Pre-K program
• The District pre-k class information will be collected for the 24/25 SY, allowing the Alves group to evaluate the self-reported data in the context of the 24/25 SY assignment algorithm.

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Ongoing/Completed

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• The Alves Group met with Dr. Fergus - February 27th
• The Alves Group met with the SOMSD Transportation - March 11th a follow-up meeting is TBD
• Planning: In a previous memo dated October 9th the consultants made a number of recommendations concerning the policy and implementation including the need for an appointed/dedicated waitlist manager who will report directly to the Superintendent and the ability to run and analyze beta tests based on 23/24 SY data. It is recommended that these be resolved before officially implementing a waitlist.
• Planning: Withdrawal data - it is recommended that the District provide real-time withdrawal information to the Alves Group. This procedural recommendation will enable the consultants and the District administrators to identify available seats, make integrative assignments on a timely basis, and facilitate the effective implementation of the future waitlist program.

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QUESTIONS