Moses v. Washington Parish School Board, Civ. A. No. 15973.

• Citation: 330 F. Supp. 1340
• Decision Date: 09 August 1971
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 15973.
• Parties: Vertrees MOSES, by his father and next friend Wilton Moses, and all other Negroes similarly situated v. WASHINGTON PARISH SCHOOL BOARD, a corporation, et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

330 F. Supp. 1340

Vertrees MOSES, by his father and next friend Wilton Moses, and all other Negroes similarly situated v. WASHINGTON PARISH SCHOOL BOARD, a corporation, et al.

Civ. A. No. 15973.

United States District Court, E. D. Louisiana, New Orleans Division.

August 9, 1971.

George M. Strickler, Jr., Elie, Bronstein & Strickler, Debra Millenson, New Orleans, La., for plaintiffs.

Hon. W. W. Erwin, Dist. Atty. for 22nd Judicial Dist., Franklinton, La., Welton O. Seal, Seal, Lee & Branch, Bogalusa, La., for defendants.

HEEBE, District Judge:

The issue presented for determination is whether or not the Franklinton Elementary School can assign students in the recently desegregated school on the basis of standardized ability and achievement tests. Without determining the per se validity of the use of such tests, the Court holds that testing, as presently used in Franklinton Elementary denies plaintiffs equal educational opportunity and impedes the immediate establishing of a truly unitary school as compelled by Alexander v. Holmes County Bd. of Ed., 396 U.S. 19, 90 S.Ct. 29, 24 L.Ed.2d 19 (1969), and has the effect of tending to preserve the dual system of education prohibited under Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954).

School Desegregation in Washington Parish: 1965-70

This suit was filed in September 1965. At that time the town of Franklinton was served by four schools, all-white Franklinton Elementary and High School and all-black Washington Parish Elementary and High School. The first integration in the system occurred in January 1967 when nineteen black students enrolled in formerly all-white schools under a freedom-of-choice desegregation plan. At the beginning of the 1967-68 school year, 106 black students chose to attend white schools. Seventeen of these students enrolled in Franklinton Elementary.

In April 1968, having found that freedom-of-choice had failed to effectively desegregate the system, the Court modified its existing orders to provide during the 1968-69 school year for the initial assignment of all students by freedom-of-choice followed by the mandatory transfer of black students sufficient to make the student body of each white school twenty per cent black. Under this plan approximately 672 black students were transferred to white schools in September 1968. Of this number 138 were assigned to Franklinton Elementary. The first faculty integration also occurred in 1968-69. The staff of Franklinton Elementary was composed that year of five black teachers and twenty-three whites. As the parish's white schools were gradually desegregated, the black schools remained all-black, both in student population and, until 1968-69, in faculties. These schools were not only segregated but in comparison to their white counterparts decidedly inferior.

After Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, 391 U.S. 430, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 20 L.Ed.2d 716 (1968), this Court ordered the complete unification of the system by order dated July 3, 1969.

As a result of this order, the black students formerly attending the all-black Washington Parish School began attending Franklinton Elementary, the former all-white school. The black school followed an educational policy of graded structure and heterogeneously grouped students while the white school followed an educational policy of level structure and homogeneously grouped students.

Franklinton Elementary has divided its teaching (and/or learning) program into eleven levels, instead of the traditional six grades. However, the ordinary student usually completed the eleven levels in six years. In explaining the school's program to the Court and to parents, the school authorities analogize the level structure to the grade structure. Frequently, the terms "level" and "grade" are used with little or no difference in meaning. Levels 1 through 4 are comparable to grade one; levels 5 and 6 are comparable to grade two; levels 7 and 8 are comparable to grade three; and levels 9, 10 and 11 are comparable to grades four, five, and six, respectively.

Franklinton Elementary groups all its students homogeneously. The grouping of students entering the first level is based on two standardized tests: The Primary Mental Ability Test (P.M.A.) — an I.Q. test — and the Ginn Reading Readiness Test. The grouping of all other students is based on the S.R.A. Achievement Test, the Ginn Reading Achievement Test and teacher evaluation.

Students are grouped first into levels and then homogeneously grouped into sections. Within a single level there may be several sections, each denominated with a letter of the alphabet; the letter A represents the highest section, B the next highest, and so on. The educational philosophy for all this grouping is to put students of more or less equal ability and achievement into small groups which can progress through the various levels of materials to be learned at their pace. Under this method, theoretically every child progresses through all the materials either at a rapid or slow pace; consequently, no child ever fails, even though he may remain in the Elementary School for more than six years.

This educational program was initiated in Franklinton Elementary by Mr. Earl Brown, Acting Superintendent and formerly principal, in 1953. The program was found to be acceptable in the community, and endures to date, even though it exists in only one school in the parish.

In 1969 the elementary schools were integrated. More accurately stated, Franklinton Elementary (the former white school) absorbed Washington Parish Elementary (the former black school). The all-black school was closed and fifteen new classrooms were added at the white school. The closing of a school for purely racial reasons is impermissible. Such a practice was recently condemned in Bell v. West Point Mun. Sep. School District, 446 F.2d 1362 (5th Cir. 1971), which held that "* * * an otherwise useful building may not be closed merely because the school board speculates that whites will refuse to attend the location. Such action constitutes racial discrimination in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment."

In West Point, the closing of the black school necessitated conducting classes on a "two shift a day" basis. In Franklinton the closing of the black school prompted the misspending of $44,888.00 of funds granted under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to build fifteen new temporary classrooms at the white school. A report dated January 20, 1971, issued to Mr. William Dodd, Superintendent of Public Education for Louisiana, by S. P. Marland, Jr., U. S. Commissioner of Education, indicates that "* * * large amounts of Title I funds were being expended for general aid for the schools, rather than to conduct activities designed specifically to meet the special educational needs of educationally deprived children as required by Title I and Regulations thereunder * * *." Mr. Charles Jarreau who now administers Federally Assisted Programs for the Louisiana Department of Education testified that using Title I funds to build those classrooms was a misuse of the funds.

Not only did the blacks lose their school, they also lost their principal and the educational policy of using a graded structure. The school board did not attempt to explain to the black parents and students involved why the educational policy of levels and homogeneous grouping which had never been used in the all-black school would be used in the new unified school in preference to the educational policy using grade structure previously in force in the black school. It was obvious the white school was to be maintained with its white principal and his educational policy.

Thus, while testing, which is essential in formulating the homogeneous groups, was not imposed in Franklinton Elementary to coincide with integration, testing was first imposed on blacks at the time of full integration in 1969. Beginning in 1953, testing was imposed on all (white) students attending Franklinton Elementary. Until the 1969-70 school year all students were placed in two homogeneous groups: math and reading. Beginning with 1969-70, the year of total integration, all students were grouped in only one homogeneous group based entirely on reading achievement and ability. The reason for this change was not adequately explained although Mr. Ray Kennedy, the principal of Franklinton Elementary, did testify that one reason was the large influx that year of black students and teachers into the formerly all-white school. However, the effects of this change seem clear. It was the unanimous opinion of all the expert witnesses who testified on this subject that if homogeneous grouping is to function soundly, the grouping should be based on as many dimensions as possible. The experts agreed that grouping students for all subjects of study based on the test scores they receive in one subject such as reading is the worst form of grouping because it can often retard the child's progress in other subject areas. Applied to...