An Up-Close and Personal Look at Durham Public Schools

Above, are two proud 2009 winter Durham Public School graduates.

My husband and I have always been advocates of public education and our college-aged son is a product of the Durham Public Schools. He will be graduating this spring with a 3.9 grade-point average from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He scored very high on his Graduate Record Examinations and is in the process now of applying at ivy-league schools across the country for entrance into their graduate and doctorate-level programs.


I mention all of this not to brag about our high-achieving, academically-gifted son, but to assure newcomers of the excellent quality of education that students can receive in the Durham Public School system. He attended Easley Elementary (a year-round school); and Carrington Middle and Riverside High (both traditional) schools.


Although it is shocking that the Durham Public School System has two of the worst high schools in the state (Southern and Hillside), the district ranks among the highest in per-pupil spending. In contrast, Durham's high-ranking high schools are Durham School for the Arts and Jordan; with Riverside and Northern not too far behind in ranking.


According to an editorial that ran in today’s Durham Herald-Sun newspaper, “DPS gets money from federal, state and local taxes. With a cumulative $9,335.09 spent per pupil in 2007-2008 (the most recent data available), DPS ranks 25th in the state for what it shells out per child. (We rank sixth for local dollars poured into our schools — $3,077.23 per pupil in 2007-2008, according to the Department of Public Instruction.)” The editorial pointed out that a huge chunk of this money was being poured into both Southern and Hillside to help boost them “out of the basement.”


When we first moved to North Carolina, we were thankful for an excellent resource through the NC Department of Education that annually ranks all the public schools in the state based on teacher quality, school safety, school technology class size and attendance. It’s an excellent tool that I like to share with all of my buyers with school-aged children: http://www.ncreportcards.org/src/