Dive Brief:
- New Jersey’s Morris School District was created in 1971 as a merger of an urban and suburban district, and it has managed to remain integrated in part because of community support and commitment to the mission.
- District Administration reports diversity training for teachers, affordable housing in the community and reorganization of elementary schools according to the Princeton Plan, which sorts students by grade level rather than geography, have also helped maintain integration.
- Researchers have found students in racially and socioeconomically integrated public schools perform better, they are better critical thinkers, and they are less prejudiced — and school districts in Denver, Newark, Nashville, St. Paul and D.C. all have integration plans based on socioeconomic status.
Dive Insight:
While education advocates have fought against segregated schools for decades, often in support of minority students, it was black families who ultimately ended a desegregation plan in Louisville, KY. And Latino immigrants have also been among those searching out programs that allow students to maintain connections to their language and culture.
At a recent education conference for journalists, Chris Stewart, director of outreach and external affairs for Education Post, pointed out black and brown families are most concerned with quality schools, not integrated ones, and some even seek out “culturally-affirming” environments as a method of self-preservation. The problem, of course, is that schools with high concentrations of students of color tend to be underfunded, have less rigorous curricula and more punitive discipline policies, and a staff of more inexperienced teachers. These problems should be solved even absent increased diversity.