Court filings: District Court, Joshua intervenors' proposed findings and conclusions of law regarding Pulaski County Special School District's (PCSSD's) motion for unitary status

The transcript for this item was created using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and may contain some errors. JOHN W. WALKER RALPH WASHINGTON MARK BURNETTE AUSTIN PORTER, JR. Mr. Sam Jones Wright, Lindsey & Jennings 200 West Capitol, Suite 2200 Little Rock, AR 72201 , Re: LRSD v PCSSD LR-C-82-866 Dear Sam: JOHN W. WALKER, P.A. ATIORNEY AT LAw 1723 BROADWAY LITILE ROCK, ARKANSAS 72206 TELEPHONE (501) 374-3758 FAX (501) 374-4187 Via Hand Delivery September 1, 1998 RECEnfED SEP 2 1998 OFFICE OF DESEGREGATION MONITORING Enclosed please find Joshua Intervenors' proposed findings and conclusions of law regarding PCSSD's Motion for Unitary Status. JWW:js /jc/ely, 'K::~~ cc: All Counsel of Record - Via United States Mail Ms. Ann Brown - Via United States Mail ' } I FILED U.S. DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT ARKANSAS IN THE UNITED STATES. DISTRICT COURT SEP Q l 1998 EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS JAMES W McCORMACK CLERK WESTERN DIVISION By: ' LITTLE ROCK SCHOOL DISTRICT, ET AL. PLAINTH'?S CLEAi< v. NO. LR-C-82-866 i PULASKI COUNTY SPECIAL SCHOOL ~~~te;_ i,ED DISTRICT, ET AL. ~"l~~E\:;.G W DEFENDANTS MRS. LORENE JOSHUA, ET AL. INTERVENORS KATHERINE W. KNIGHT, ET AL. SEP 2 1998 OFFICE Of DESEGREGATION MONITORING The Joshua Intervenors' INTERVENORS Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law concerning the Motion of the Pesso for Termination of the court's Jurisdiction The Joshua Intervenors hereby submit their proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law concerning the motion of the Pulaski County Special School District (PCSSD) for the termination of the court's jurisdiction. r. Proposed Findings of Fact A. Introduction (1.) In 1989 and 1990, the Joshua Intervenors, as well as representatives of the PCSSD, the LRSD, and the NLRSD negotiated five ~ritten agreements, leading to the settlement of this case. 1 In this settlement, the officials of the PCSSD "voluntarily adopted" 2 three plans, a "Desegregation Plan [for] PCSSD" (CX 432, modified version of April 29, 1992), an 1 LRSD y. PCSSD, 921 F.2d 1371, 1376-80, 1383, 1384 (1990). 2 Order, 9-23-96, at 12. 1 "Interdistrict Desegregation Plan" (CX 433, modified version of April 29, 1992), and a "Settlement Agreement" addressing, in part, the resolution of claims against the state. (2.) The Court of Appeals approved the parties' settlement and addressed its implementation and enforcement in its opinion of December 12, 1990. The court wrote that 11 [i]t is important for the settlement plans to be scrupulously adhered to ... " (921 F.2d at 1386); the court also charged this court with the responsibility for "monitor[ing] closely the compliance of the parties with the settlement plans and the settlement agreement [and] ... ~ak[ing] whatever action [was] appropriate ... to ensure compliance with the plans and the agreement. ".I_d. at 1394. 3 The Court of Appeals referred to the plans as "a benchmark for the future path of this case" 4 and "a particular- -- ization of federal law applicable to these parties. 115 (3.) The Court of Appeals recognized that this court would require assistance to perform its monitoring function. It therefore provided for the creation of the "Office of Desegregation Monitoring" (ODM) to support the court's efforts. LRSD., 921 F.2d at 1388, 1394. Thereafter, ODM staff, under the leadership of Ann Brown, has: (i) prepared 3 The Court of Appeals also referred to the parties "scrupulously and diligently carry[ing] out the settlement plans and the settlement agreement .... ".IJ3.SI2, 921 F.2d at 1394. 4 Appeal of Little Rock, 949 F.2d 253, 255 (1991). 5 Knight y. Pesso, 112 F.3d 953, 954 (1997). 2 approximately 35 formal monitoring reports, virtually all of which address the PCSSD wholly or in part; (ii) attended scores of court hearings, many of which concerned the PCSSD, at least in part; and (iii) had scores of more direct contacts with the officials and employees of the PCSSD regarding various aspects of the district's voluntary commitments and ODM's efforts . .E......a..., ex 475 ("ODM Climate Analysis Process"); Tr. 551 (A. Brown); Tr. 524 (E. Collins); Tr. 812 (G. Miller). (4.) The voluntary commitments of the PCSSD address outcomes or goals, various activities designed to achieve those goals, and what might be termed process issues, namely the approach to be taken by the system's officers and agents in implementing the plans. See findings (5.)-(7.) (5.) The outcomes or goals identified in the plans, to which -~ the PCSSD voluntarily agreed, address for example, eliminating or reducing disparity in achievement between white and black students (CX 433, at 6, Interdistrict Plan; ex 432, at 95-96, PCSSD Desegregation Plan); and eliminating disproportionate disciplining of black students. (CX 432, at 6) (6). The activities identified in the plan address, for example, actions to attain the outcomes or goals of the plans in the areas of student achievement (CX 432, at 85-86), discipline (CX 432, at 73-74, 75-76), and classroom racial make-up. (CX 432, at 96-97) (7.) The voluntarily agreed process is delimited in various provisions of the plan. The following are among those which are 3 - particularly significant. Desegregation Plan (ex 432, at 14, Office of the Superintendent) The Superintendent is the chief desegregation officer of the Pulaski County Special School District. It is his duty to be familiar with the district's legal obligations under the Constitution, court orders, and applicable statutes, and to be certain that the Board and staff members are kept aware of those obligations. The superintendent is responsible for vigorously implementing the Board's desegregation policy and plan and for accurately and promptly reporting positive accomplishments and areas where additional ,efforts are needed. The superintendent is expected to recommend to the Board such modifications of policies and practices as may be reW,1ired from time to time; the goal is to achieve desegregation outcomes, and the Superintendent must promote sufficient institutional flexibility to reach that goal. (emphasis added) Desegregation Plan ccx 432, at 16-17, Assistant Superintendent for Desegregation) The Assistant superintendent for Desegregation is responsible for planning, directing, controlling, and monitoring the overall desegregation plan of the District .... (at 16) One of the primary responsibilities of the Assistant Superintendent for Desegregation is to direct the administra~ion of the District's Office of Desegregation, including supervision of the Director of the Office of Desegregation, who reports to the Assistant Superintendent for Desegregation. The Assistant Superintendent for Desegregation will work closely with the Office of Desegregation to determine if the Office of Desegregation is fulfilling its purpose and meeting its goals as appropriate. (at 17) Desegregation Plan (CX 432, at 18, Director of Desegregation) An essential purpose of the monitoring conducted by the Office of Desegregation is to observe and thoroughly document progress being made toward all the District's desegregation goals and objectives. To this end, the Director of Desegregation will monitor the District's compliance with civil rights laws and court orders. Further. this monitoring function includes recommendin~ corrective action where necessary to improve the quality of the desegregation process and to achieve a federal court 4 ' declaration of unitary status. (emphasis added) Desegregation Plan (CX 432, at 95-96, Assistant Superintendent for Instruc"tion) The Assistant Superintendent for Instruction has responsibility for monitoring the District's desegregation efforts in the Instructional Division, including ... the effectiveness of the educational program in reducing achievement disparity .... . . . . [SJtudent achievement is monitored by race so as to collect the data necessary to evaluate programs and make necessary curricular and instructional changes to support the concept of equity and enhanced learning for all students. (emphasis added) . (8.) Mr. Billy Bowles is the system's Assistant Superintendent for Desegregation,~ position he has held for 13 ' years. (CX 441, at 4) Asked during his testimony "[d]o you know ' whether or not you . are responsible as a board -- you as an agent of the board for vigorously implementing the board's desegregation policy and plan, 11 Mr. Bowles replied: "Yes, we are responsible for vigorously implementing the plan." (Tr. 313) 6 (9.) The testimony during the hearing of Ms. Tommy Sue Anthony presented some of the deficiencies in the implementation of the voluntary plans, and a good example of the agreed upon process at work. This testimony concerned the area of advanced placement courses. In this are~, the plan provides (CX 432, at 7) : The District will also strive to raise the level of student academic performance .... This objective will also be met by an increase in the number of black students enrolled in gifted and talented classes, pre-AP classes, and AP classes. 6 Unless otherwise indicated, transcript citations are to the transcript of the hearing conducted from June 29-31, 1998. 5 (10.) Ms. Anthony completed her term as the District's Director of Talented and Gifted Programs on June 30, 1998. (Tr. 440) Through 1991, or so, her duties encompassed advanced placement (AP) classes. She resumed that assignment in 1996-97, after a five-year hiatus. (Tr. 458-59) Upon resuming these responsibilities, Ms. Anthony "collected all the data from every school about enrollment, black, white and including the feeder classes," and found that "black students were under represented in advanced placement [classes] .... " (Tr. 480) She also agreed that "no concerted effort had been made in the intervening five or six ~ears" (Tr. 465) "to find a ~ay to get more black students as the plan committed into AP .... " [Tr. 464; see also Tr. 286, line 17 to 289, line 11 (Dr. Altom) (inaction)]. (11.) Ms. Anthony explained what followed: ... Oyer the last several years I have become very, very concerned about the lack of African-American students or the very small numbers of African-American students enrolled in AP. I brought this to the attention of several people .arul finally this past year was directed to convene a committee made up of people; teachers, administrators, counselors from throughout the district, all of our secondary schools, and look at the district's policy. My feeling was that perhaps each subject matter had a different policy of how a child could be placed in AP and I felt that perhaps these policies were prohibiting students from getting into AP and should be more inclusive. I also knew that the National Office of the College Board was encouraging districts to develop an inclusive strategy for placement in AP. So we convened the Committee. We actually re-did the district handbook for placement in AP and made it much more inclusive .... I might say we spent the entire -- this committee spent the entire year on struggling with these issues and the policies actually came out right at the end of the year. We've just now implemented some of these strategies and it looks like from the preliminary figures that I have turned 6 back in the last week of school that the numbers have increased. They are not where they should be but these policies seem to be beginning to work and the numbers of black students seem to be increasing for next year. (emphasis added) (12.) This is an example of the vigorous implementation required by the voluntary plan. It involved, after a period of inattention, the use of data to identify a problem as to the attainment of a goal of the plan, identification of a policy requiring revision, a group effort to achieve that end, and implementation, and monitoring, thereafter, which determined that the new policies were "beginning to work .... " However, the requisite vig?rous implementation, -or, alternatively, scrupulous and diligent implementation, is absent in many significant areas, as these findings show. (13.) The general problem is illuminated by testimony of the court's monitor, Ms. Ann Brown. Significant questions and answers are as follows (Tr. 552): Q: Ana your opinion as to whether or not the district has any place -- any assessment criteria in place other than say that which has been explained by Ms. Tommie Sue Anthony for assessing the viability of educational programs which may be in place from the perspective of achieving remediation of student achievement disparity. A: I'm aware of some individual reports that are evaluative in nature and as Mrs. Anthony has alluded to, some are summative and some are formative -- some are formative, I'm sorry. Some of them are summative, in that they tend to be issued at the end of the school year. As far as a comprehensive evaluation of their programs and operations in relation to their plan, I am not aware of any comprehensive documents of that nature. * * * Q: Have you seen evidence that this district has had 7 . . __. ,. sustained rigorous, vigorous activities to implement each and every aspect of the plan submitted to the court as reflected in the desegregation plan, the interdistrict plan and the Joshua agreement? A: No, I can't say that. (Tr. 555-56) While unable to fault the Pesso as to the filing of required monitoring reports, Ms. Brown did question the content and, particularly the~ of the information. She testified as follows (Tr. 557-58): A number of the reports are a compilation as I said previously and a number of the documents that have been used in various activities, for example, the recruitment document that we received. Where I have been disappointed is that I have not seen evidence of how the school district has made use of these documents in measuring the rate and the progress or the extent of the progress. In other words, I don't see that there is a -they're valuative in nature. I do not see that there regular application of this information to determine should be changed .... usually is a what._, While r have certainly seen some good faith efforts on behalf of the district. r have not seen that has been applied diligently throughout the entire operation of the district. (~mphasis added) B. Discipline (14.) The provisions of the PCSSD desegregation plan concerning school discipline include the following: Goals: 1. There will not be a disproportionate number of minorities disciplined. 3. There will be a district-wide school-based management system. 4. There will be an alternative discipline program for at-risk youth. . (CX 432, at 6) * * * 8 .... More alternatives (e.g., in house suspension) should be supported by the administration and Board of Education. (CX 432, at 6) * * * .... Disciplinary records are kept on each student concerning suspensions and expulsions that show the reasons for punishment, the teacher or staff member involved, and the school, race, and sex of the student disciplined. collection and assessment of this information allows the school principal, parents and others to analyze the reasons for suspension by race and sex, and to determine if particular teachers or staff members are experiencing problems t~at require attention .... (emphasis added) The Assistant superintendent for Pupil Personnel services shall submit a discipline report to the Superintendent, School Board and the Office of Desegregation at the end of each semester along with specific recommendations or suggestions for reducing the disproportionality .... The Assistant Superintendent for Pupil Personnel and Director of Staff Development has established a biracial committee to study the problem of minority students being-disciplined disproportionately .... (Plan, CX 432, at 73- 74) Discipline Data Analysis Assessment objective: to identify sources and nature of disproportionate black discipline in -removal action (classroom removals and school removals). a. Determine which disciplinary actions result in overrepresentation of black students (suspensions, expulsions, removal from classroom) .... b. Determine which offenses result in overrepresentation of black students in disciplinary actions. d. Determine which staff are involved in actions which result in students being involved in disciplinary actions. e. Determine length of time and\or severity of disciplinary actions, comparing black and white students ... (CX 432, at 75) 9 Parental rnvolyement Analysis .... After the needs assessment is completed and analyzed, a discipline management system will be developed .... (CX 432, at 75) (15.) Mr. Eddie Collins serves as Assistant Superintendent for Pupil Personnel Services in the PCSSD, a position he has held for 15 years. (CX 443, at 9). Mr. Collins' responsibilities encompass the area of school discipline. (CX 443) Asked "is a goal of elimination of disparity in discipline a realistic goal" -- "is it doable," Mr. Coliins testified, "I think so." (Tr. 545) Under its "discipline management system," the PCSSD "proposes to .e liminate disparity within f..i ve years." (Tr. 546) (16.) ODM's Report titled "Disciplinary Sanctions in the Pulaski County Special School District" (March 18, 1998) shows . that there continue to be very significant racial disparities in discipline rates in the PCSSD. For example, it is possible using data presented by ODM (at page 94) to determine, for secondary students, by racial group, how many of each 100 students of the group enrolled in the PCSSD were subjected to particular forms of discipline in 1996-97, and to calculate disparity in terms of the extent to which the rate for black students, per 100 students, exceeded the rate for white students. These results are as follows: (a) Suspensions. The suspension rate per 100 for all black students was 36.06 and for all white students 21.3, with the black rate exceeding the white rate by 1.69 times. The suspension rate per 100 for black male students was 45.08 and for white male 10 students 29.9, with the black rate exceeding the white rate by 1.5 times. (b) Saturday School. The assignment rate per 100 to Saturday School for all black students was 50.18 and for white students 29.55, with the black rate exceeding the white rate by 1.7 times. The assignment rate per 100 to Saturday School for black male students was 61.00 and for white male students 32.27, with the black rate exce~ding the white rate by 1.59 times. (c) Expulsions. The expulsion rate per 100 for all black students was 2.92 and for all white students .BB, with the black rate exceeding the white rate by 3:31 times.The expulsion rate per 100 for black male students was 4.52 and for white male students 1.41, with the black rate exceeding the white rate by 3.2 times. (17.) A similar analysis, for 1996-97, regarding~ elementary level, based upon statistics appearing in the ODM Report at 64, is as follows: (a) Suspensions. The suspension rate per 100 for all black students was 11.18 and for all white students 4.64, with the black rate exceeding the white rate by 2.41 times. The suspension rate per 100 for black male students was 15.96 and for white male students 7.75, with the black rate exceeding the white rate by 2.06 times. (b) Saturday School. The assignment rate per 100 to Saturday School for all black students was 5.71 and for white students 3.07, with the black rate exceeding the white rate by 1.85 times. 11 - The assignment rate per 100 to Saturday School for black male students was 7.47 and for white male students 5.05, with the black rate exceeding the white rate by 1.48 times. (18.) ODM concluded that the PCSSD has failed to achieve its objective regarding racial disparity in the area of discipline. (At 100) Its other conclusions included the following (at 100): .... Each year for the past six years, more and more black students (especially males) have been suspended or expelled from school, thus receiving less classroom instruction. From an academic perspective, the negative effect that reduced instructional time has on test scores, grades and other indicators of academic progress must be considerable. From a behavioral perspective, the potential for mischief from students who are out of school and 'on the streets~ is tremendous. , The PCSSD designed its Saturday School program to help students stay in school by providing an alternative for outof- school suspension. Thus we would expect to see suspensions decline as Saturday school placements increase. ~ On the contrary, the data shows that the opposite has occurred. Since the district opened the Saturday program to all schools in 1993-94, overall suspensions have continued to rise while, on the whole, referrals to Saturday School have declined. Even with the [Discipline Management System] and the Saturday School program, the PCSSD continues to sanction black students at rates that are disproportionate to their numbers in the student population. Apparently, many school personnel are not getting the help they need to deal with some of their students, particularly black males. No school district should have an out-of-school suspension rate approaching 50% for any portion of its student population. yet that is exactly what the district's records show is happening to its black male students at the secondary level . . (emphasis added) See also Tr. 512, line 16 to 514, line 17 (M. Powell testimony). (19.) The evidence establishes that the PCSSD did not implement some of the steps identified in the portions of its plan addressing discipline. 12 (a) The end of semester reports to the superintendent, school board, and office of desegre_gation do not include "specific recommendations or suggestions for reducing the disproportionality. . "Compare ex 432, at 74 and ex 423 (discipline reports). (b) There is no apparent compliance with one facet of the "discipline data analysis" provisions, namely, the promise to analyze "length ,of time ... of disciplinary actions, comparing black and white students .... 11 Compare CX 432, at 75, CX 438, at 11 (answer 14), and ex 423 (discipline reports). (c) The ~ystem voluntarily agreed to data collection and analysis for the purpose, in part, of "determin(ing] if particular teachers or staff members are experiencing problems - .that require attention .. " (CX 432, at 74, 75) The evidence establishes inattention to and the lack of implementation of this important feature of the plan. see ex 443, at 29, line 25 to 33, line 2; see also ex 438, at 22 (answer 33) (d) The "biracial committee to study the problem of minority students being disciplined disproportionately" (CX 432, at 74, plan) did not present any conclusions in writing. (CX 438, at 24, request# 2) (20.) The ODM Report noted the vastly different discipline rates at various system schools, at both the elementary and secondary levels. (Report at 65-66, 95-96) The PCSSD's data collection system has allowed the central office staff to identify the schools with the highest discipline rates and the 13 - greatest disproportionalities. (CX 423) The reaction of the central office staff to this data is fairly characterized as w;:.Q forma. See Tr. 543, lines 2-6: ex 443, at 33, lines 3 to 25 (Collins deposition). (21.) The PCSSO adopted a Discipline Management system (OMS) and developed a OMS manual for the stated purpose of ending the racial disparity in discipline during a five-year period. There are guidelines for the local implementation plan, which each school was required to develop (and has developed). The content of the plans vary considerably, as did the mode of preparation. (OOM Report, ~t 3) The evidence established the need for additional efforts to perfect the OMS approach. [Tr. at 540 (Collins) (system getting ready to analyze school data from 1997- - 98): 546-48 (Collins)]. (22.) OOM has not monitored, on a sample basis, the extent to which there is actual implementation of local school OMS plans, or the relationship of particular features to positive or negative outcomes. (23.) The ODM Report set forth 11 recommendations. (At 103-04) (see in particular numbers 1, 2, and 9). The PCSSO is at an early stage of considering the monitors' suggestions. (Tr. 524, line 6 to 525, line 13) c. Facilities (24.) Plan provisions concerning school facilities include the following: An aim of the plan shall be to ensure for all students equal educational facilities. Schools which are located in 14 lower socioeconomic areas shall receive more attention and resources at least equal to those in more affluent areas in respective districts. (CX 433, at 5, ID Plan) .... Facilities will be maintained so that they are clean. safe. attractive and equal. (ex 432, at 3, Pesso Plan; emphasis added) (25) The ODM completed on April 30, 1998 a detailed report titled "Secondary School Facilities in the Pulaski County Special School District." ODM concluded that the system had not complied with its commitment to provide schools which were "clean and attractive, as promised." (ODM Report, at 50) ODM "noted no egregious safety violations, but found that many schools exhibited lapses in safety and security measures." .Id. ODM "did not find that schools in lower income neighborhoods were more rundown than those in more affluent neighborhoods." (At 54) In substance ODM found the depressing, unsatisfactory pattern of school upkeep to be distributed randomly. (.Id. at 54-55) ODM did write: "Fuller was in extremely poor condition, ranking as one of the most neglected schools [the monitors] visited .. II (.Id at 54) The condition of the Fuller School is a matter of concern, that school having been in the range of 43 to 49 percent black in the period from 1988-89 through 1997-98. (CX 418, ODM Report, 1- 30-98, at c-31) The school can hardly attract or retain a desegregated student population over time if its condition is "extremely poor." It is also reasonable to conclude that the poor and decrepit condition of the PCSSD schools will depress the efforts by school staff and students necessary to make progress in reducing the achievement disparity. 15 (26.) Intervenors' Interrogatory 20 and the system's response are as follows (CX 438, at 17): The Interdistrict Plan provides in part (at 5): "Schools which are located in lower socioeconomic areas shall receive attention and resources at least equal to those in more affluent areas .... Please identify each document: (i) evidencing an effort to ascertain compliance with this standard during the period from the start of the 1995-96 school year to date, and (ii) allowing an evaluation, currently, to ascertain compliance with this standard. Response. Plans and drawings and contracts regarding these schools are available for inspection at the central office. This answer evidences a lack of attention to the plan requirements .. The documents identified donot focus on the voluntary commitments. ( 27.) The testimony in deposition of Superintendent Lester_ __ also revealed a lack of systematic attention to the quality of school facilities. There has been no third-party study of facilities for "ten or twelve years." (CX 446 at 59) There has been no internal study "reduced to writing" "in the last four or five years." M. There has been no improvement plan adopted by the school board in the last five years. (CX 446 at 60) Asked to describe the criteria used in comparing facilities, the superintendent replied "eyeball sight." (CX 446 at 62) The Superintendent testified that "[i]t's just our goal to keep every facility at its present state as best we possibly can." (CX 446 at 60) He also testified that Fuller Junior High was equal to Jacksonville (without identifying the particular Jacksonville 9 facility he referenced). (CX at 61-62) The Superintendent did 16 . .. ----- --------- contend that there was .a list of priority projects in the Plant Planning Division; he had very limited knowledge of its contents. (CX 446 at 60-61) (28.) The PCSSD did not present any documentary evidence of priority projects. (29.) Assistant Superintendent Bowles testified, in part: "I have to say I am in agreement primarily with the ODM's report. our buildings appear in disarray. I'm also aware that there are some conditions in those buildings that are not on a day-to-day basis. They're long term that's been overlooked by staff or people who are supposed to take care of that and it's a problem that we're working on diligently, daily, .t- o try to solve." (Tr . 134) He added in a like vein: "Well, I have to echo what I've heard the superintendent and what everybody else has said. They're all bad." (Tr. 136) Mr. Bowles testified that the cabinet ,. will take up ODM's recommendations; he opined "we'll look at those things that they recommend that we can afford to do and ; implement them," but expressed his "understanding" that there is "very little money. 11 (Tr. 395) (30 . .) The district presented no evidence of consideration of options for securing funding to render school facilities "clean, safe [and] attractive", or the prospects of success in this regard. (31.) This evidence negates any conclusion that the PCSSD has. vigorously implemented its voluntary commitments in the area of school facilities. Nothing has been implemented "scrupulously" 17 / I or "diligently." o. Multicultural Education (32.) The system's voluntary undertaking regarding multicultural education included the following: "By 1996-97, the Pulaski County Special School District will have infused multicultural instruction in all curriculum areas. Pulaski County Special School District will be recognized as an institution which values multicultural education and actively practices its philosophy in all classrooms." (CX 432, at 4) (33.) In October 1996, the Center for Research on Teaching and Learning, UALR, provided a report titled "Pulaski County Special School District Multicultural Infusion Evaluation." (CX .473) The evaluators identified as a focus of their project the existence of "tangible evidence" that "multicultural concepts and principles are being infused into the PCSSD curriculum." (CX 473 ~ at 3) The evaluators questioned whether the "Multicultural Infusion section of the PCSSD School Profile" is marked by "the rigor or validity necessary to evaluate multicultural infusion in the classroom." (Ig. at 7) 7 The conclusions regarding analysis of teacher lesson plans were as follows: "Results of the Lesson 7 They elaborated: "In many of the 'Neutral' responses, the teacher did not openly violate the goal, but neither was there evidence that the goal had been embraced by the teacher and incorporated into everyday practice. Additionally, from the content of the items themselves, it is evident that these items are more closely related to classroom management than to specific curricular or pedigogical tecniques. Therfore, the items included on the PCSSD School Profile are not adequate to capture the process of infusing multiculturalism into the daily operations of classrooms .... 11 (CX 473, at 7-8) 18 - Plan Analysis indicate that in the lesson plan books of a significant number of the classrooms included in the study, there was evidence of these elements of multicultural infusion having been included on a regular basis. At the same time, over one third of the lesson plan books examined showed no evidence of having included these items in the planning of daily classroom activities. It is possible that teachers did, indeed, include such aspects of multicultural infusion into their classroom daily practice, but no evidence of planning for such activities was found." (CX 473, at 9) The Report set forth six recommendations "[d]ue to the inconsistency between School Profiles and the ' findings of this evaluation .... " (CX 473, at 14) These included a suggestion of some third-party administration of the system's assessment instrument . .Ig. The evaluators concluded: "PCSSD schools and administration should work to develop specific multicultural goals and strategies to implement them, utilizing as much as pract'i cable existing library and media center materials to achieve those goals that are in line with state frameworks." .I51. E. Special Education Programs . (34.) The PCSSD's voluntary commitments in the area of special education include the following (CX 432, at 11): .... The other long-range goal involves correcting the problem of overrepresentation of blacks, especially black males, in special education. The goal is to reduce the disparity between blacks and whites by gender and categorical placement. A concomitant long-range goal is to eliminate disproportionality within races in special education. 19 . .. . (35.) The evidence offered by the system (CX 427) does not reflect the gender of special educ~tion students. Therefore, the court can not