Charlotte is the 17th most diverse city (400K+) in the US.

[SentioVenia]

Very interesting infographic comparing the diversity of large American cities:

Diversity of US Cities

Charlotte, not surprisingly, is 17th out of 45.

[videtur quam contuor]

Sadly, diversity is not the same as integration. Milwaukee, for example, is listed as more diverse than Charlotte, however it is the most segregated city in the U. S.

http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-milwaukee-most-segregated-polarized-place.html

[SgtCampsalot]

21 minutes ago, tarhoosier said:

Sadly, diversity is not the same as integration. Milwaukee, for example, is listed as more diverse than Charlotte, however it is the most segregated city in the U. S.

http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-milwaukee-most-segregated-polarized-place.html

Yeah, I'm hoping that as these urban neighborhoods get more white, or just generally affluent, families moving into them they will start sending their kids to the public schools and become part of that solution. The proliferation of magnet and charter schools feels like a bandaid solution to me, and is concerning. Correct me if you feel I'm wrong. But i feel as though we're going to have to confront this disparity eventually, and the first is step will likely be the families that CHOOSE to do the integrating. 

[southslider]

^Except it could happen a lot faster if a new Central HS took in the mostly gentrified first-ring neighborhoods.  Takes a lot more demographic change in the middle-ring to ever change schools like Garringer.

[SgtCampsalot]

1 hour ago, southslider said:

^Except it could happen a lot faster if a new Central HS took in the mostly gentrified first-ring neighborhoods.  Takes a lot more demographic change in the middle-ring to ever change schools like Garringer.

Good point. Though I wonder whether a central school would detract from the eventual progress of integrating the existing schools (ie: people falling all over each other to get into it, exclusively), or whether it would accelerate the progress (ie: people starting to have a model on which to have faith in the inner city public schools again). Hmm...

In general, I think it will start with the elementary schools, since the affluent families are young new parents and they will affect the schools their children are in. Then it will spread to the middle schools and high schools over the next decade or two.

[11 HouseBZ]

^^^Or maybe more diverse than just one demographic. White people aren't the only affluent ones out there. Those neighborhoods need to be diverse for the health of the neighborhoods not for the comfort of white people.

 

P.S. I'm not trying to be nit picky or mean, I really hope I'm not hurting feelings. 

[SgtCampsalot]

16 hours ago, 11 HouseBZ said:

^^^Or maybe more diverse than just one demographic. White people aren't the only affluent ones out there. Those neighborhoods need to be diverse for the health of the neighborhoods not for the comfort of white people.

 

P.S. I'm not trying to be nit picky or mean, I really hope I'm not hurting feelings. 

No no, I absolutely agree with you. I know I'm painting with a broad brush by conflating white/affluent families; it's just the most visible distinction. I also don't mean to offend by my blind spots.

I get sad when I see that affluent families (no matter the race) don't understand that both their kids, and the kids of the lower-to-middle income families, all have just as much to gain from one another as the other. Racial and economic diversity is crucial for a child's development; isolation within affluence, or within poverty, are both detrimental. I have some hope as I see the inner ring suburbs change, but more parents that are new will need to be more vigilant at helping improve the public school systems, and to a certain extent, I believe that that involves limiting the promotion of magnet/charter schools.

[CLT2014]

22 hours ago, SgtCampsalot said:

No no, I absolutely agree with you. I know I'm painting with a broad brush by conflating white/affluent families; it's just the most visible distinction. I also don't mean to offend by my blind spots.

I get sad when I see that affluent families (no matter the race) don't understand that both their kids, and the kids of the lower-to-middle income families, all have just as much to gain from one another as the other. Racial and economic diversity is crucial for a child's development; isolation within affluence, or within poverty, are both detrimental. I have some hope as I see the inner ring suburbs change, but more parents that are new will need to be more vigilant at helping improve the public school systems, and to a certain extent, I believe that that involves limiting the promotion of magnet/charter schools.

No sure if you have kids, but I'm a young dad and we thought we could be a part of a group of parents trying to make Sedgefield Elementary a better performing school and more diverse. The neighborhood has such a great location near Uptown too. We enrolled our oldest and lasted two years. The diversity aspect was good and our son learned a lot culturally being one of three white kids in his class and middle class, but at the end of the day, the students are being held back academically by the bottom 1/3 of the class. We had to balance trying to fight the system on our own, or realizing that by 5th grade, our son would still not know how to write a paragraph.

In first grade, we were basically homeschooling. The teacher had to make the homework extremely easy for students to get passing grades of C or better, or not even assign it at all because she was fighting a losing battle as many of the students wouldn't even submit it. My wife would spend hours teaching him additional material and helping him progress further, because his 1st grade classes almost had less learning than the pre-school he attended. Our son was getting straight A's, but when I saw the level of learning expected at Dilworth Elementary and Beverly Woods, I realized we had a major problem. The other kids were ahead, and even today, I slightly regret our decision to have him go to Sedgefield. The only good from an academic perspective is we were very involved and established routines for helping him when needed. He now is actually learning in the classroom and while we stay involved and help him learn, we don't have to basically take on 100% of the teaching also and have school just be daycare (which most parents at Sedgefield thought school was for, free daycare).

In an ideal world, Sedgefield would be a great school and diverse. It will take a long time to get there because I think many young parents like myself will try it out thinking they can make the world a better place, and then realize that comes at great cost for your own child you love and want to have a bright future.

[SgtCampsalot]

22 minutes ago, CLT2014 said:

In an ideal world, Sedgefield would be a great school and diverse. It will take a long time to get there because I think many young parents like myself will try it out thinking they can make the world a better place, and then realize that comes at great cost for your own child you love and want to have a bright future.

Really good valuable points, thank you. I don't have kids yet, and it's nice to hear the take from someone who isn't mindlessly bashing "bad" schools.

Frustrating. How can we make things better? Are partial magnet programs really the answer? Busing has such a stigma on it by some, but is a modest version of it the answer? Dang.

[Silicon Dogwoods]

22 minutes ago, CLT2014 said:

No sure if you have kids, but I'm a young dad and we thought we could be a part of a group of parents trying to make Sedgefield Elementary a better performing school and more diverse. The neighborhood has such a great location near Uptown too. We enrolled our oldest and lasted two years. The diversity aspect was good and our son learned a lot culturally being one of three white kids in his class and middle class, but at the end of the day, the students are being held back academically by the bottom 1/3 of the class. We had to balance trying to fight the system on our own, or realizing that by 5th grade, our son would still not know how to write a paragraph.

In first grade, we were basically homeschooling. The teacher had to make the homework extremely easy for students to get passing grades of C or better, or not even assign it at all because she was fighting a losing battle as many of the students wouldn't even submit it. My wife would spend hours teaching him additional material and helping him progress further, because his 1st grade classes almost had less learning than the pre-school he attended. Our son was getting straight A's, but when I saw the level of learning expected at Dilworth Elementary and Beverly Woods, I realized we had a major problem. The other kids were ahead, and even today, I slightly regret our decision to have him go to Sedgefield. The only good from an academic perspective is we were very involved and established routines for helping him when needed. He now is actually learning in the classroom and while we stay involved and help him learn, we don't have to basically take on 100% of the teaching also and have school just be daycare (which most parents at Sedgefield thought school was for, free daycare).

In an ideal world, Sedgefield would be a great school and diverse. It will take a long time to get there because I think many young parents like myself will try it out thinking they can make the world a better place, and then realize that comes at great cost for your own child you love and want to have a bright future.

You've just described the dilemma. Thoughtful, well-meaning parents confront the reality of a diverse classroom.

Diversity by race, gender and economic circumstance is an attainable goal. Diversity by academic ability and gumption is not.