MEDIA ALERT: Bluegrass Institute report indicates growing racial academic, graduation gaps in JCPS

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For Immediate Release: Tuesday, June 9, 2020

(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) – A new report by the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Kentucky’s first and only free-market think tank, indicates a continuing – and disturbing – failure by the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) to close its decades-long – and growing – graduation and academic-achievement gaps between black and white students despite spending tens of millions of dollars annually to bus thousands of minority children from low-income homes to schools in the wealthier east end of the school district. “Our analysis shows that after many years of unproven experiments, failed reforms and lengthy daily bus rides by thousands of students in the district, too many schools leave too many of JCPS’ most at-risk children behind,” said Education Analyst Richard G. Innes, author of “Blacks Falling Through Gaps in Louisville’s Schools – A 2020 Update.” The update is the latest in a series of institute reports examining how many of the most at-risk children in Kentucky’s largest city are getting left behind by our public education system. Innes highlights the following results from the math portion of the state’s 2019 KPREP test: 

• Despite massive busing efforts for nearly a half-century, 11 of the 20 JCPS high schools with enough of a minority population to meet requirements for reporting scores for both white and black students produced only single-digit proficiency rates for blacks.

• After three decades of expensive education reform, less than 10% of white students at Iroquois High School tested proficient or higher while barely 1% of the school’s black students reached proficiency following decades of busing and failed experimental reforms.

• Amongst JCPS elementary schools, the 21% black proficiency rate at Norton Commons in the upper-scale east side of the district is far below the 43% performance turned in by black students at West Louisville’s Portland Elementary School. Yet the district spent more than $80 million this school year to bus blacks away from their neighborhoods and schools which might likely serve them better.

• Mounting evidence shows that busing not only fails miserably to close the district’s achievement gap but, in fact, may be making it worse:

• 14 out of the 25 middle schools with 2019 math performance data posted a 20-percentage point plus achievement gap for whites and blacks. In 2015, only 12 schools posted such large gaps.

• Three middle schools posted enormous math achievement gaps exceeding 50 percentage points in 2019. In 2015 only one middle school posted a 50-point plus gap.

In addition to examining the math achievement gaps, the report also discusses serious inequities in high school graduation rates that lie hidden behind official graduation rates unevenly inflated by lots of social promotion to diplomas. The report provides a compelling analysis showing blacks frequently graduate with skill sets lower than their white peers. “Is this the best that 30 years of expensive busing and experimental reforms can do for our black children?” Bluegrass Institute president and CEO Jim Waters asked. “It’s certainly not a very good return on investment for a district that already has a $1.8 billion budget and wants to raise taxes to gather even more revenue.” 

For more information, please contact Jim Waters at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com, 859.444.5630 ext. 102 (office) or 270.320.4376 (cell).