All That Glitters Is Not Gold: School Reform in Charlotte-Mecklenburg

Abstract

In the early 1990s, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system (CMS) began a sweeping program of school reform that involved revamped standards, a comprehensive system of benchmark goals, increased autonomy for principals, and a high-stakes accountability system. This program has been lauded in prestigious education journals, praised by reform advocates in business and government, and cited as a model in a recently published handbook of school reform. Such national publicity notwithstanding, there has been no systematic investigation of the effects of CMS's program on academic outcomes. This article provides such an assessment by comparing CMS's progress in improving outcomes for both Black and White students with that of two other North Carolina urban districts and the state itself. With the exception of some outcomes for Advanced Placement (AP) and other higher level courses, we find no evidence that CMS's program improved academic outcomes. Trends in CMS's dropout rate—one of North Carolina's highest—generally paralleled those of the controls as did trends in SAT scores and proficiency in core high school courses. Moreover, CMS's progress in improving reading and math proficiency in Grades 3–8 lagged behind the controls'. Finally, racial imbalance in CMS increased during this time period. The many shortfalls of CMS's program raise questions whose answers will further the national dialogue about school reform and the role of standards, accountability, and assessment in such reform.