A report by the federal Office of Desegregation Monitoring says that while the Pulaski County Special School District has made progress, equal opportunites for black students "remains frustratingly elusive."
The report says the district is inconsistent while carrying out plans for academic achievement, multicultural curriculum and discipline. It said the district, which surrounds the Little Rock and North Little Rock districts, is failing to meet goals set in 2000.
While the district "can point with pride to Advanced Placement, Gifted and Talented, and Honors Programs as an area of African-American progress," there were disparities between white students and black students.
The report's harshest criticism covered discipline, saying the strict made "no real progress in reducing the appalling
disclipline sanction rates for black students, especially black males."
About 42 percent of the student body is black, but black
students had 58 percent of the district's suspensions and 71 percent of the expulsions.
Pulaski County's district has had four superintendents since 2000 and has been on the state's "fiscal distress" list since 2005. It is at risk of consolidation next year if it doesn't regain financial stability.
The three districts in Pulaski County are monitored under terms of a 23-year-old desegregation lawsuit. Arkansas legislators have urged an end to the lawsuit.
School board president Pam Roberts said she hadn't read the
report but that district officials "always take the office's reports very seriously."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
