The school's Tier 1 boundaries reflect the founding parents & citizens neighborhoods. Period.

Did you talk with some of the founding families of ANCS about how the zones were determined? It's possible that leadership in some of the neighborhoods close to ANCS did not want to be in the primary zone because they didn't want middle class kids leaving the traditional public school for ANCS.

Did you do some research on the racial makeup of the neighborhood when the school was started? Have housing prices increased in the primary zone? If so, the neighborhood's racial makeup is probably getting whiter, because unfortunately wealth and race are often linked, as you know. ANCS can't control that. Toomer is getting whiter too. Because Kirkwood is gentrifying, not because there are bunch of racists at the school.

To me it feels a little bit like you are race-baiting to drive traffic to your site. I hope I'm wrong about that.

Great points, Alice.

Certainly your SENSATIONALIST headline is meant to grab attention and web-hits ( same goes for the Patch!).

Certainly, you bring up valid points - points that cannot be regulated, legally, factoring in race and free and reduced lunch. Are you aware of that?

I implore you to reach out to founding families and and become educated on the history of NCS after we reached out to the traditional public school, and the conduct and attitude of the APS of old - they make the current administration and board look like angels.

I agree that Summerhill should now be included in the primary zone, but, once again, you have to look at history. Summerhill had a neighborhood school in McGill Elementary. Summerhill is in another NPU and, at that time, divided by city council representation which were factors. Charter schools in APS are required to have approval of the NPU where located - which includes Grant Park and Ormewood Park.

Oh, please look at the numbers and stats when NCS first opened. Yes, the stats have changed, but that is not due to "De Facto Segregation" as your sensational headline states, but reflective of the community where it is located.

Yes, Parkside is gaining a lot more community support and that is reflective in the younger grades and will continue to show that, K-5. Credit is due to the hard work of the current parents, many out of zone and over 50 APS employees, and the complete resources committed to Parkside from APS.

By the way, I neglected to add that ANCS has a permanent wait list. In other words, once you get on the list you can stay on it year after year, if you elect to. This makes is much easier for people in zones two and three to get in if they didn't right off the bat. They aren't being put through the lottery again year after year.

This article is poorly researched, inflammatory and inaccurate. Mr. Apperson, I think it is time that you ceased spreading spurious claims regarding schools about which all you know is what you have gleaned from a district spreadsheet. Historical context is entirely lacking in your conclusions.

Yeah, Jarod, you should have talked with some of these people before you wrote what you did, because the raw data led you to some very wrong conclusions. You are not considering the system dynamics and context in which NCS was created in 2001. The demographics, the politics, the redistricting, APS's attitude, charter acceptance, etc are all WAY different then it was.

My suggestion to you: have a set-down with Ramiro, Don, and Chris Murphy at Six Feet Under (it's different than it used to be as well) and get the NCS (or the ANCS) story. I think you will have a different take afterwards. You have great access to data, and you can model that data, but your assumptions in your methodology need some work, bro.

Hi all, thanks for your comments. It seems that some have taken my article as an attack on the motives of ANCS. I am not suggesting that it was the intention of the founders to create a segregated school. I do not question that the founders motives were just as they stated, a diverse school. However, over time, the charter currently in place has resulted in segregation.

I do not think charter schools should be limiting their students to small geographic areas. I think it is counter to the purpose of charters. Charters are supposed to be schools of choice. If children & parents outside of ANCS's preference zone want to attend the school, their opportunities should not be limited by how much house they can afford.

My goal is to highlight that fact that ANCS's current charter has resulted in segregation, encourage leaders of ANCS to recognize this as counter to the goals of its founders, and suggest a potential solution. In my mind, the simplest solution is to either eliminate or expand ANCS's geographic preference area.

http://atlncs.org/school/enrollment/enrollment-policy-procedures/
Admission policies are all explained here.

Regardless of how wide you draw the boundaries, the family centric policy of allowing siblings preferred access limits the amount of available seats to the lottery. The building you show is the middle school campus in the heart of Ormewood Park. Not the Slaton building referenced in your article.

It is my understanding that the State of GA now requires charter schools to be open to all the residents of the entire district (in this case APS), and that boundaries are not allowed. This is what we learned during out 1-year transitional renewal for Wesley International Academy. I assume that once ANCS is up for renewal, they will learn this too. That is if the state "rules" hold up. They change every day it seems. We'll know more when WIA completes its 5-year renewal in the coming months.

Jarod: again, I think it would be good to refine your language choices. If I read what you are saying, there are many parts where I can agree with what you are saying. But the language, especially the sensationalist headline, seems poorly chosen. In your blog entry on Inman, didn't you say you live in Midtown? SPARK has a lower percentage of black children than ANCS. Is SPARK's zone de facto segregation? Was the opposition to grade centering with Hill-Hope de facto racism?

You also aren't including the history of this school and the way chartering works. Summerhill was invited to be a part of ANCS but refused - angrily. Peopelstown's neighborhood association actively opposes charter schools that would either prioritize or draw from the neighborhood.

You have my email address - feel free to send me or others a note whenever you are thinking about writing an article on our neighborhoods to make sure you aren't missing some major facts. There are also a couple of student dissertations available online that document the history of the creation of the school.

Hi Andrea, I do live in Midtown and I absolutely think zoned schools are de facto segregated.  How many of the APS schools are 90%+ single race in a diverse city where the largest race is 54% of the population?  How many have 90%+ ED students in a city with diverse incomes?

I'm sure you know this, but in case some don't: When talking about segregation "de facto" is a term meaning segregation NOT by law.  It is used to discuss situations where factors other than a legal requirement result in segregation. 

Not just in Atlanta, but throughout the nation, tons of zoned public schools either are or nearly are segregated, so this title could apply to a discussion of many schools.

What is unique about ANCS (and why I chose to write an article) is that it is not a regular school.  It is a charter school with a narrowly defined admissions preference zone.  I think (I am about to share an opinion or an unconfirmed belief) that the public perception of charter schools is that they are open to all who apply and slots are given out randomly.  I think there are many in our city and the nation who don't realize that the tiered preferences can play such a big role.  I also don't think most realize that ANCS in particular has such a small area in it's first geographic preference zone, even smaller than the zoned traditional school.

Continued...

This issue is about a problem that has currently resulted from the ANCS charter, and why I think ANCS should consider amending that charter going forward.  I think the founders did want a diverse school.  At first they had some diversity.  At this point, a change has to be made to the charter if the school is going to go back to those roots.  If not, it will continue to operate like a wealthy zoned school (SPARK included), and I don't think that's what supporters of charters (including myself) expect from the charter schools.

Clay, that's really interesting.  Do you have any more info on the GA DOE position?

Andrea, I will send you any article/blog I write about Jackson cluster schools at least one day before posting.  If you want to review articles on any other schools, just shoot me an email saying which ones.

That small area is large enough to fill a small school, which is what ANCS is. Having said that, people from all tiers currently attend the school. And in the future, the permanent wait list will certainly help ensure that folks from all over Atlanta continue to have access even though the school is increasingly popular in it's first tier.

I think it's fine to want all of the schools in the city to be as racially and economically diverse as all of Atlanta. Why you would single out ANCS and use a term like 'segregation' and then claim to be making a perfectly rational point is where things get muddy. Clearly, and you know this very well, that word conjures up horrible images of the bad-old-days.

If you want for all of the schools in Atlanta to have a diverse economic and racial population, then let us discuss how we can make that happen, the pluses and minuses of what it will take to do that etc. That would actually be a good discussion.

Sorry for the typos.

Hey Alice, I would love to have that discussion and I have a couple of ideas. Maybe we could get together for lunch one day. If you want, send me an email at jarodapperson@gmail.com and we can set something up.

Andrea,

Can you clarify something for me about this post:
"ANCS Tier 1 includes 684 K-5 children. Drew's Tier 1 includes 87 children. Drew Tier 1+Tier 2 has 162 children, so ANCS's Tier 1 is three times as big as Drew's."

The Tier 2 for Drew with 162 children ==> is this current Tier 2 population attending Drew, or total Tier 2 population? Tier 2 is Eastlake & Kirkwood, and there has to be more than 162 school age children in those two neighborhoods? And the same question for Tier 1; The Villages only have 87 school age children?

And being our local unofficial demographer, you would know : - )

@Meagan- thanks very much for your post. I don't know if it will have any effect on someone who has an agenda, but it's nice to see straight-forward history, truth and common sense in a discussion.

Andrea, you're right that Drew also has a small preference zone for its first two tiers.  I would like to see some changes to Drew's policy as well.  The situation is different and lends itself to a different argument.  I will be writing a separate article on the issue (which I will send to you before posting anywhere).

As for this article, I am advocating that ANCS make a change in its charter going forward.  It seems like people are concerned that the emotive language used in that argument places ANCS in a bad light, but no one seems to be disagreeing that this preference zone should be reviewed/amended.

I think people our first concerned with your emotive language, but I also think those who have purchased property within ANCS Zone 1 with hopes of increasing their chances of getting into ANCS would very much disagree with your call for ANCS to review/amend its current zoning preference.

"It seems like people are concerned that the emotive language used in that argument places ANCS in a bad light, but no one seems to be disagreeing that this preference zone should be reviewed/amended."

We've all disagreed with it. Satisfied?

JR, expreasing my view on your first question is complicated, so I will wait and address it completely with an article.

As for your second question, I don't have a rigid concept of what an appropriate geographic boundary should be. I am concerned about the current situation, but I am flexible on an appropriate solution. Here are three ideas. 1. A radius of x miles from the school. 2. A radius including x times the number of students served by the school. 3. All of APS.

My gut is that all kids should have equal access to charter schools. At the same time, I appreciate Andrea's point that there's a benefit to neighborhood schools, owned by a local community. In that trade off between choice and local, I think I lean more toward choice with charters. To some extent, a chater without zoning preferences may still remain a local school as more applicants are likely to apply in the immediate region. The other two ideas try to compromise on the local vs. choice trade off, while ensuring a large community has access to the charter.

The great thing about charter schools is that they're so flexible. You can try something, see how it goes and adjust if needed.

Jarod,

I'm not trying to be combative, but I'm going to ask you something that could rub you the wrong way:

Why should any of us in Southeast Atlanta care what you think (one way or the other) about our schools? I don't believe you are a parent, you don't live in our area, you are not an education expert. Frankly speaking, unless you are Daddy Warbucks offering large education enrichment grants to our schools, I can't think of a reason why any of us should get too wrapped up in anything you write. No offense, but you are a person just the like the rest of us, no better & no less.

Your profession is as a forensic accountant, correct? If you REALLY wanted to improve the local schools, you would do some pro bono work down at Trinity Avenue and find out just how much money has been pissed away over the years, which department the next scandal will come from, why APS' administrative rate per student is almost twice as much as other school systems, the real reason why APS is reducing the per child amounts to the charter schools, or why the pension system has been grossly underfunded for years.

If you find the answers to any of those questions, I think you'll garner enough accolades to be the next Mayor.

Anjin-san, yes, I am just a person, no better than anyone else.  The only reason you should listen to me is if, after some consideration, you see the points I'm making as valid.

Thankfully, we live in a nation and a city where de jure segregation ended a long time ago.  However, our school populations are still largely determined by how much house you can afford.  It's not that people living in the ANCS or SPARK zones are malicious.  It's just a natural effect of zoning that good schools create demand and increase real estate prices.  That ultimately results in exclusion of those without the means to pay the higher prices.  

In my view, charter schools give us a great opportunity to recreate to world of education as it should be.  I think that world is one where children's opportunities are not limited by where their parents can afford to live.

I am just a person trying to persuade you that ANCS has an opportunity to untie real estate prices from education access that that is an important action to take.

One question - how do you define diversity?

No school, public or private, is open to everybody. Boundaries of many types exist - financial, legislative, locational. The great thing about charter schools is that if a neighborhood, or district, or group, wants one, they can start one! Go for it - do the very hard work! Just don't contemptuously come knocking on another neighborhood's successful door. That smacks of resentment, or unbridled idealism. After you have lived in this world long enough, and held down a job, and have been fortunate enough to start a family, you realize that you have to work very very hard to get your family into a neighborhood with good schools. Once you do this, the last thing you want is open enrollment to squelch your chances. I speak this as someone who has chosen to live in SE Atlanta over other neighborhoods (like Candler Park, or Morningside). I want to raise my kids in Ormewood Park. And I want them to be in Tier 1 for enrollment. The beautiful thing about ANCS is that it is a small, local, and successful option for families who want to live in this part of the city. There is absolutely no reason that the charter needs to be changed, nor is it likely that it will. You have to do the work to get the access - whether you are founding the school or attending it.

Chris, you have just managed, in one single comment, to completely articulate a position entirely in opposition to everything ANCS stands for. If you have a child that attends ANCS--and if you are at all active in the ANCS community, you obviously still have a lot to learn about their values and philosophy.