Going in Circles Without Any Facts

by Joe Hawkins

When I worked at Teaching Tolerance Magazine (1992, 1993), I wrote a piece about study circles.  I like study circles.

Study circles were created in 1989 by the Study Circles Resource Center. Eventually, the Center evolved into the organization known now today as Everyday Democracy (click here for a link to that organization). Everyday Democracy uses study circles as a means for communities to discuss a wide range of social and public issues, including criminal justice, education, race, and neighborhood development.

On November 9, 2010, The Washington Post ran an article on study circles (“Trying to close the circle on race”—click here for a link to the article: ) and their specific use by the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) to explore issues centered around race. When reading the Post article, I wish I could have stopped the science part of brain from working.  MCPS is crediting its study circles with all kinds of miraculous deeds, including reviving PTA’s, mixing up kids of different races in school lunchrooms, academic achievement gap busting solutions, and increased enrollments by students of color in Advanced Placement courses.

You see the science part of brain is always asking for numbers, facts, and figures.  So as I read the Post piece, I was amazed at the absence of any facts and figures. And let’s be clear here, the Post MCPS study circles article implies that study circles are credited with improving race relations, as well as a whole lot of other things. 

Okay—I’m all for improving race relations, but what’s the baseline for race relations in the county schools?  For example, how did white and blacks parents feel about one another before the institution of study circles (in the schools with the circles)? And further, before study circles, where all the kids of color sitting separate from all the white kids in our school lunchrooms? How can we Post readers rightly judge the impact of these study circles for improving race relations if no one knows what the starting point is?

Now there is an official MCPS study circles evaluation report. That report is found here.

However, this report lacks a clear picture of where race relations stand in our schools prior to the introduction of study circles. In fact, based on my knowledge of the issue, the last time the county adequately assessed race relations—how well students of different backgrounds view each other—was in 1994 when the county’s Committee on Hate/Violence conducted a random telephone poll of county high school students. I was a member of that county committee.