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Still Separate, Still Unequal: Teaching about School Segregation and Educational Inequality

By Keith Meatto

• May 2, 2019

Racial segregation in public education has been illegal for 65 years in the United States. Yet American public schools remain largely separate and unequal — with profound consequences for students, especially students of color.

Today’s teachers and students should know that the Supreme Court declared racial segregation in schools to be unconstitutional in the landmark 1954 ruling Brown v. Board of Education . Perhaps less well known is the extent to which American schools are still segregated. According to a recent Times article , “More than half of the nation’s schoolchildren are in racially concentrated districts, where over 75 percent of students are either white or nonwhite.” In addition, school districts are often segregated by income. The nexus of racial and economic segregation has intensified educational gaps between rich and poor students, and between white students and students of color.

Although many students learn about the historical struggles to desegregate schools in the civil rights era, segregation as a current reality is largely absent from the curriculum.

“No one is really talking about school segregation anymore,” Elise C. Boddie and Dennis D. Parker wrote in this 2018 Op-Ed essay. “That’s a shame because an abundance of research shows that integration is still one of the most effective tools that we have for achieving racial equity.”

The teaching activities below, written directly to students, use recent Times articles as a way to grapple with segregation and educational inequality in the present. This resource considers three essential questions:

• How and why are schools still segregated in 2019? • What repercussions do segregated schools have for students and society? • What are potential remedies to address school segregation?

School segregation and educational inequity may be a sensitive and uncomfortable topic for students and teachers, regardless of their race, ethnicity or economic status. Nevertheless, the topics below offer entry points to an essential conversation, one that affects every American student and raises questions about core American ideals of equality and fairness.

Six Activities for Students to Investigate School Segregation and Educational Inequality

Activity #1: Warm-Up: Visualize segregation and inequality in education.

Based on civil rights data released by the United States Department of Education, the nonprofit news organization ProPublica has built an interactive database to examine racial disparities in educational opportunities and school discipline. In this activity, which might begin a deeper study of school segregation, you can look up your own school district, or individual public or charter school, to see how it compares with its counterparts.

To get started: Scroll down to the interactive map of the United States in this ProPublica database and then answer the following questions:

1. Click the tabs “Opportunity,” “Discipline,” “Segregation” and “Achievement Gap” and answer these two simple questions: What do you notice? What do you wonder? (These are the same questions we ask as part of our “ What’s Going On in This Graph? ” weekly discussions.) 2. Next, click the tabs “Black” and “Hispanic.” What do you notice? What do you wonder? 3. Search for your school or district in the database. What do you notice in the results? What questions do you have?

For Further Exploration

Research your own school district. Then write an essay, create an oral presentation or make an annotated map on segregation and educational inequity in your community, using data from the Miseducation database.

Activity #2: Explore a case study: schools in Charlottesville, Va.

The New York Times and ProPublica investigated how segregation still plays a role in shaping students’ educational experiences in the small Virginia city of Charlottesville. The article begins:

Zyahna Bryant and Trinity Hughes, high school seniors, have been friends since they were 6, raised by blue-collar families in this affluent college town. They played on the same T-ball and softball teams, and were in the same church group. But like many African-American children in Charlottesville, Trinity lived on the south side of town and went to a predominantly black neighborhood elementary school. Zyahna lived across the train tracks, on the north side, and was zoned to a mostly white school, near the University of Virginia campus, that boasts the city’s highest reading scores.

Before you read the rest of the article, and learn about the experiences of Zyahna and Trinity, answer the following questions based on your own knowledge, experience and opinions:

• What is the purpose of public education? • Do all children in America receive the same quality of education? • Is receiving a quality public education a right (for everyone) or a privilege (for some)? • Is there a correlation between students’ race and the quality of education they receive?

Now read the entire article about lingering segregation in Charlottesville and answer the following questions:

1. How is Charlottesville’s school district geographically and racially segregated? 2. How is Charlottesville a microcosm of education in America? 3. How do white and black students in Charlottesville compare in terms of participation in gifted and talented programs; being held back a grade; being suspended from school? 4. How do black and white students in Charlottesville compare in terms of reading at grade level? 5. How do Charlottesville school officials explain the disparities between white and black students? 6. Why are achievement disparities so common in college towns? 7. In what ways do socioeconomics not fully explain the gap between white and black students?

After reading the article and answering the above questions, share your reactions using the following prompts:

• Did anything in the article surprise you? Shock you? Make you angry or sad? Why? • On the other hand, did anything in the article strike you as unsurprising? Explain. • How might education in Charlottesville be made more equitable?

Choose one or more of the following ideas to investigate school segregation in the United States and around the world.

1. Read and discuss “ In a Divided Bosnia, Segregated Schools Persist .” Compare and contrast the situations in Bosnia and Charlottesville. How does this perspective confirm, challenge, or complicate your understanding of the topic?

2. Read and discuss the article and study the map and graphs in “ Why Are New York’s Schools Segregated? It’s Not as Simple as Housing .” How does “school choice” confirm, challenge or complicate your understanding of segregation and educational inequity?

3. Only a tiny number of black students were offered admission to the highly selective public high schools in New York City in 2019, raising the pressure on officials to confront the decades-old challenge of integrating New York’s elite public schools. To learn more about this story, listen to this episode of The Daily . For more information, read these Op-Ed essays and editorials offering different perspectives on the problem and possible solutions. Then, make a case for what should be done — or not done — to make New York’s elite public schools more diverse.

• Stop Fixating on One Elite High School, Stuyvesant. There Are Bigger Problems. • How Elite Schools Stay So White • No Ethnic Group Owns Stuyvesant. All New Yorkers Do. • De Blasio’s Plan for NYC Schools Isn’t Anti-Asian. It’s Anti-Racist. • New York’s Best Schools Need to Do Better

3. Read and discuss “ The Resegregation of Jefferson County .” How does this story confirm, challenge or complicate your understanding of the topic?

Activity #3: Investigate the relationship between school segregation, funding and inequality.

Some school districts have more money to spend on education than others. Does this funding inequality have anything to do with lingering segregation in public schools? A recent report says yes. A New York Times article published in February begins:

School districts that predominantly serve students of color received $23 billion less in funding than mostly white school districts in the United States in 2016, despite serving the same number of students, a new report found. The report, released this week by the nonprofit EdBuild, put a dollar amount on the problem of school segregation, which has persisted long after Brown v. Board of Education and was targeted in recent lawsuits in states from New Jersey to Minnesota. The estimate also came as teachers across the country have protested and gone on strike to demand more funding for public schools.

Answer the following questions based on your own knowledge, experience and opinions.

• Who pays for public schools? • Is there a correlation between money and education? Does the amount of money a school spends on students influence the quality of the education students receive?

Now read the rest of the Times article about funding differences between mostly white school districts and mostly nonwhite ones, and then answer the following questions:

1. How much less total funding do school districts that serve predominantly students of color receive compared to school districts that serve predominantly white students? 2. Why are school district borders problematic? 3. How many of the nation’s schoolchildren are in “racially concentrated districts, where over 75 percent of students are either white or nonwhite”? 4. How much less money, on average, do nonwhite districts receive than white districts? 5. How are school districts funded? 6. How does lack of school funding affect classrooms? 7. What is the new kind of ”white flight” in Arizona and why is it a problem? 8. What is an “enclave”? What does the statement “some school districts have become their own enclaves” mean?

• Did anything in the article surprise you? Shock you? Make you angry or sad? Why? • On the other hand, did anything in the article strike you as unsurprising? Explain. • How could school funding be made more equitable?

Choose one or more of the following ideas to investigate the interrelationship among school segregation, funding and inequality.

1. Research your local school district budget, using public records or local media, such as newspapers or television reporting. What is the budget per student? How does that budget compare with the state average? The national average? 2. Compare your findings about your local school budget to your research about segregation and student outcomes, using the Miseducation database. Do the results of your research suggest any correlations?

Activity #4: Examine potential legal remedies to school segregation and educational inequality.

How do we get better schools for all children? One way might be to take the state to court. A Times article from August reports on a wave of lawsuits that argue that states are violating their constitutions by denying children a quality education. The article begins:

By his own account, Alejandro Cruz-Guzman’s five children have received a good education at public schools in St. Paul. His two oldest daughters are starting careers in finance and teaching. Another daughter, a high-school student, plans to become a doctor. But their success, Mr. Cruz-Guzman said, flows partly from the fact that he and his wife fought for their children to attend racially integrated schools outside their neighborhood. Their two youngest children take a bus 30 minutes each way to Murray Middle School, where the student population is about one-third white, one-third black, 16 percent Asian and 9 percent Latino. “I wanted to have my kids exposed to different cultures and learn from different people,” said Mr. Cruz-Guzman, who owns a small flooring company and is an immigrant from Mexico. When his two oldest children briefly attended a charter school that was close to 100 percent Latino, he said he had realized, “We are limiting our kids to one community.” Now Mr. Cruz-Guzman is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit saying that Minnesota knowingly allowed towns and cities to set policies and zoning boundaries that led to segregated schools, lowering test scores and graduation rates for low-income and nonwhite children.

Read the entire article and then answer the following questions:

1. What does Mr. Cruz-Guzman’s suit allege against the State of Minnesota? 2. Why are advocates for school funding equity focused on state government, as opposed to the federal government? 3. What did a state judge rule in New Mexico? What did the Kansas Supreme Court rule? 4. What fraction of fourth and eighth graders in New Mexico is not proficient in reading? What does research suggest may improve their test scores? 5. According to a 2016 study, if a school spends 10 percent more per pupil, what percentage more would students earn as adults? 6. What does the economist Eric Hanushek argue about the correlation between spending and student achievement? 7. What remedy for school segregation is Daniel Shulman, the lead lawyer in the Minnesota desegregation suit, considering? Why are charter schools nervous about the case? 8. How does Khulia Pringle see some charter schools as “culturally affirming”? What problems does Ms. Pringle see with busing white children to black schools and vice versa?

• Did anything in the article surprise you? What other emotional responses did you have while reading? Why? • On the other hand, did anything in the article strike you as unsurprising? Explain. • Do the potential “cultural” benefits of school segregation outweigh the costs?

Choose one or more of the following ideas to investigate potential remedies to school segregation and educational inequality.

1. Read the obituaries “ Jean Fairfax, Unsung but Undeterred in Integrating Schools, Dies at 98 ” and “ Linda Brown, Symbol of Landmark Desegregation Case, Dies at 75 .” How do their lives inform your grasp of legal challenges to segregation?

2. Watch the following video about school busing . How does this history inform your understanding of the benefits and challenges of busing?

3. Read about how parents in two New York City school districts are trying to tackle segregation in local middle schools . Then decide if these models have potential for other districts in New York or around the country. Why or why not?

Activity #5: Consider alternatives to integration.

Is integration the best and only choice for families who feel their children are being denied a quality education? A recent Times article reports on how some black families in New York City are choosing an alternative to integration. The article begins:

“I love myself!” the group of mostly black children shouted in unison. “I love my hair, I love my skin!” When it was time to settle down, their teacher raised her fist in a black power salute. The students did the same, and the room hushed. As children filed out of the cramped school auditorium on their way to class, they walked by posters of Colin Kaepernick and Harriet Tubman. It was a typical morning at Ember Charter School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, an Afrocentric school that sits in a squat building on a quiet block in a neighborhood long known as a center of black political power. Though New York City has tried to desegregate its schools in fits and starts since the 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, the school system is now one of the most segregated in the nation. But rather than pushing for integration, some black parents in Bedford-Stuyvesant are choosing an alternative: schools explicitly designed for black children.

Before you read the rest of the article, answer the following questions based on your own knowledge, experience and opinions:

• Should voluntary segregation in schools be permissible? Why or why not? • What potential benefits might voluntary segregation offer? • What potential problems might it pose?

Now, read the entire article and then answer these questions:

1. What is the goal of Afrocentric schools? 2. Why are some parents and educators enthusiastic about Afrocentric schools? 3. Why are some experts wary of Afrocentric schools? 4. What does Alisa Nutakor want to offer minority students at Ember? 5. What position does the city’s schools chancellor take on Afrocentric schools? 6. What “modest desegregation plans” have some districts offered? With what result? 7. Why did Fela Barclift found Little Sun People? 8. Why are some parents ambivalent about school integration? According to them, how can schools be more responsive to students of color? 9. What does Mutale Nkonde mean by the phrase “not all boats are rising”? 10. What did Jordan Pierre gain from his experience at Eagle Academy?

• Did anything in the article surprise you? What other emotional responses did you have while reading? Why? • On the other hand, did anything in the article strike you as unsurprising? Explain. • Did the article challenge your opinion about voluntary segregation? How?

Choose one or more of the following ideas to investigate some of the complicating factors that influence where parents decide to send their children to school.

1. Read and discuss “ Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City .” How does reading about segregation, inequity and school choice from a parent’s perspective confirm, challenge or complicate your understanding of the topic?

2. Read “ Do Students Get a Subpar Education in Yeshivas? ” How might a student’s religious affiliation complicate the issue of segregation and inequity in education?

Activity #6: Learn more and take action.

Segregation still persists in public schools more than 60 years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision. What more can you learn about the issue? What choices can you make? Is there anything students can do about the issue?

Write a personal essay about your experience with school segregation. For inspiration, read Erin Aubrey Kaplan’s op-ed essay, “ School Choice Is the Enemy of Justice ,” which links a contemporary debate with the author’s personal experience of school segregation.

Interview a parent, grandparent or another adult about their educational experiences related to segregation, integration and inequity in education. Compare their experiences with your own. Share your findings in a paper, presentation or class discussion.

Take action by writing a letter about segregation and educational inequity in your community. Send the letter to a person or organization with local influence, such as the school board, an elected official or your local newspaper.

Discuss the issue in your school or district by raising the topic with your student council, parent association or school board. Be prepared with information you discovered in your research and bring relevant questions.

Additional Resources

Choices in Little Rock | Facing History and Ourselves

Beyond Brown: Pursuing the Promise | PBS

Why Are American Public Schools Still So Segregated? | KQED

Toolkit for “Segregation by Design” | Teaching Tolerance

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Neag School of Education

Reducing racism in schools: the promise of anti-racist policies.

• by: Britney L. Jones
• September 22, 2020
• Community Engagement

Introduction

In 2020, the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others led to a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement across the nation and around the globe. The revitalization of this movement has come with increased public demand for policy change, and specific calls for anti-racist policies in schools. As a result, many educational leaders are grappling with what this means for their respective contexts, and the extent to which their school or district’s current policies measure up to public demand.

Educating and training teachers and administrators on how to enact culturally relevant and inclusive practices is one step towards eliminating racism in schools.

Educating and training teachers and administrators on how to enact culturally relevant and inclusive practices is one step towards eliminating racism in schools. Expressing a commitment to anti-racism through school policies, statements, guidelines, or codes takes these efforts a step further. Within the last decade, some schools and districts have penned their own anti-racist policies to detail the steps they are taking to disrupt racism within their locale. In this brief, I describe these policies and highlight recent initiatives aimed at eliminating racism in schools. As school and district leaders advance their own anti-racist policies and objectives, this policy brief provides guidance based on the practices of diverse districts in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Anti-Racist Policy in Schools

Anti-racist policies are usually documents drafted by a governing body and disseminated to staff, parents, and students in a particular district or school. Similar to a code of conduct, school handbook, or anti-bullying policy, the policy states the organization’s commitment to anti-racism and lays out procedures that must be followed in order to uphold the organization’s commitment to the cause of dismantling racism to create an inclusive, equity-oriented environment. Over the past decade, schools and districts, both nationally and internationally, have written and adopted policies to address racism, discrimination, and inequity in schools. U.S. districts often refer to these policies as equity policies, while in places such as the United Kingdom (U.K.), Australia, Ireland, and South Africa, similar policies are usually entitled anti-racist policies. Despite the difference in name, they often share similar objectives and features. Anti-racist and equity policies typically start with a statement of assurance that the board or governing body has considered the importance of racial equity, followed by a renunciation of discriminatory behavior within their context. Next, the document includes a definition of racism. Then, these policies describe the steps taken by the governing body to ensure equity or anti-racism.

Components of Anti-Racist Policy: Areas to Address

For this brief I examined over 25 publicly available equity or anti-racist policies from several states in the U.S. and from schools in Australia, South Africa, Ireland and the U.K. I found that most policies address racism through the lenses of:

• school environment,
• incident reporting,
• data analysis, and

After addressing these components, policies typically offer guidance or present action steps to support implementation. These include:

• providing a clear and accurate definition of racism for consumers of the policy,
• devising a plan for policy dissemination,
• appointing an anti-racist committee or point person,
• coupling equity/anti-racist policy with other school or district-wide policies, and
• partnering with external organizations.

Below I briefly describe each of these components.

School Environment: Creating an Anti-Racist/Equity-Oriented Culture and Climate

Most of the policies discuss the school environment at length. Generally, they describe ways in which school staff can create and maintain a welcoming and inclusive environment for all students. One way policies describe achieving this goal is through representation of multiple racial and ethnic backgrounds in curricula, texts, hallway displays, and digital media. They also state the importance of incorporating positive role models and discussing issues of race and diversity within classrooms and during school-wide events. Several anti-racist/equity policies advocate events focusing on diversity and empathy building, such as Friendship Week or Multicultural Week. Policies also describe building teachers’ awareness of racism and bias as a means to shift culture and climate in the school. These policies require teachers to be mindful of cultural assumptions and bias, develop racial literacy, enact cultural responsiveness, and understand their own identity. In the Anti-Racist Policy of Bure Valley School in the U.K., the authors offer specific examples of how this can be done, asserting that students “should be confident to speak, hear or read in their home language in school” and have their names “accurately recorded and correctly pronounced” by teachers (p. 2).

Reporting: Developing a System for Reporting Racial Incidents

Most policies also detail reporting requirements. Authors of these policies aim to ensure a system is in place to deal with incidents of racism and discrimination. This component often lays out a specific procedure for responding to an incident including requiring a written report, timeline for resolution, documentation of resolution, and family notification. In addition to forms for reporting, many anti-racist/equity policies require a racism logbook or place for complaints to be recorded permanently. These policies also describe ways in which schools could support students who may be victims of a racist or discriminatory act. Some policies note that support for students involved in an incident should be ongoing and coupled with psychological or mental health services. Additionally, some policies encourage schools to help students feel empowered to report incidents and develop strategies for dealing with racial conflict.

Staffing: Recruiting, Hiring, and Retaining Diverse Staff with Equity/Anti-Racist Mindsets

Many of the policies emphasize the need to recruit and retain staff members dedicated to anti-racism, and committed to providing equity-based training for new and veteran educators. In its equity statement, the Princeton Public Schools District in New Jersey states, “The goal is to attract, develop, inspire, and retain a diverse workforce within a supportive environment.” Several other schools and districts echo this sentiment within their policies by describing their efforts to diversify their staff, both in terms of demographics and beliefs. They attempt to fulfill this goal through recruitment of culturally and linguistically diverse teachers and administrators. They articulate the importance of hiring staff that mirrors the student population. Some districts or schools call for staff hiring to follow equal opportunity hiring procedures and the use of equity-oriented criteria for selection. For teachers already employed, policies name professional development and new staff training as opportunities to provide new learning around racial consciousness and inclusivity.

Data Analysis: Employing an Equity Lens to Identify Disparities and Inform Decision-Making

Several policies aim to challenge racism through race conscious data collection and review. According to these policies, “effective” review of data means testing for differences across student demographic groups in access, performance, and discipline. The Portland Public School District in Oregon suggests using data to identify and modify assessments that lead to over or under-representation of minoritized groups. For example, some policies identify focus areas such special education identification and suspension for review given the history of over-representation of students from minoritized groups in special education and among suspensions. Some state the goal of increasing the number of minoritized students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses. Others call for a closer look at how selective admissions criteria for enrollment may lead to adverse effects and the ways in which admissions testing may disadvantage students of color. Baltimore City Public Schools in Maryland states their plan to disaggregate data to “analyze trends, identify gaps, and develop racial equity priorities” (p. 4). To fulfill this objective of equity-oriented data analysis, some policies highlight the need for constant monitoring and reporting on progress towards goals.

Funding: Assessing and Allocating Funds for Equity Purposes

While undoubtedly important, funding is mentioned in only a few of the anti-racist/equity policies. Policymakers in Baltimore include the following line in their policy: “Ensure that purchasing/procurement practices provide access and economic opportunities within communities represented by students of color” (p. 4). This is one way that educational institutions can be mindful of their economic impact on the community. Schools may also decide to allot funds to ensure attainment of aforementioned objectives such as equitable hiring, staff training, and data analysis resources.

While undoubtedly important, funding is mentioned in only a few of the anti-racist/equity policies.

In sum, the policies reviewed tend to address five areas to enhance anti-racism and equity in their contexts. Creating equity-oriented objectives in the areas of school environment, incident reporting, staffing, data analysis, and funding is an important start. However, when drafting these documents, policymakers should include additional guidelines to support the implementation of anti-racist policies. Next, I describe some of the ways existing policies attempt to ensure attainment of policy objectives.

Components of Anti-Racist Policy: Process Elements to Support Implementation

Clearly and Accurately Define Racism

One way to create strong anti-racist policy is by providing a clear definition of racism to frame the policy. In addition to setting context for the policy, opening with a definition creates an opportunity to educate readers and norm on the school or district’s understanding of racism. Such definitions vary across policies. Some of the international anti-racist policies begin by distinguishing between personal and institutional racism and offer clear definitions for each. For example, in the U.K. the Truro School’s Anti-Racist policy relies on a definition from The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report, which states that institutional racism is “the collective failure of an organisation to 
provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin.” The policy continues: “when a child is subject to racist bullying or harassment, their behaviour and attainment are likely to be affected; if the behaviour is treated in isolation without taking into consideration the issues and effects of racism, this can be described as institutional racism. The racist element must be explicitly recognised and dealt with” (p. 2). This definition is provided before any other components of the policy are explained. Policymakers should consider how their context defines equity and racism before laying out a plan to address these issues. Consumers of anti-racist policy may be better equipped to follow subsequent guidelines if they have a foundational understanding of the problem and the purpose of the policy.

Policy Dissemination

The second way policymakers intend to make these policies come alive is through a plan for dissemination. Many policies are available online, on the school or district website. Other strategies for distribution include a physical copy in a designated location such as a school’s main office and inclusion in student and staff handbooks. One district states that a summary of the policy will be included in students’ yearly planners. Other ideas for dissemination include public displays in prominent areas of the school, placement in newsletters, and discussions during assemblies. Importantly, several anti-racist/equity policies name all parties that should review the policy, including staff, parents, students, contractors, service provides, and any other school visitors.  

  Appointing a Committee or Point-Person

The third way policymakers support implementation of these policies is by putting an individual or group in charge of monitoring the school’s progress towards goals. In some cases this is the superintendent or another school leader; in other contexts, an equity committee is charged with this responsibility. For example, in Shaker Heights, Ohio there is an equity task force made up of 11 educators, nine community members, and two students. In general, the governing body or individual is required to report to the school board, make recommendations based on data, promote alignment between equity and other goals, present tools or resources, and ensure compliance with state and federal laws. Most policies describe the need for an annual report or review as part of their action plan.

Coupling Anti-Racist/Equity Policies with Other School Policies

A fourth way to promote accountability and adherence to anti-racist/equity policy is by associating it with other school policies, especially those that are well established. Most of the policies reviewed for this brief are linked to other policies focusing on topics such as: discipline, behavior, anti-bullying, school safety, the staff code of conduct, and the student code of conduct. Several anti-racist/equity policies identify their relationship to standards and curriculum and federal laws regarding race and discrimination. Attaching these policies to existing initiatives helps to integrate them into the organizational fabric of these educational institutions.

Partnering with External Organizations

Finally, to support implementation of anti-racist policy, schools and districts should seek guidance from organizations already committed to anti-racist work. Several policies name equity-based or anti-racist organizations with which they were affiliated. This is an important component because it lessens the burden on educational systems to deal with complex issues of race and equity on their own and presents the opportunity to rely on the expertise of government agencies, universities, community organizations, research organizations, and anti-racist nonprofits. This can also facilitate and strengthen relationships between schools and communities.

A Promising Example

As mentioned above, many of the existing anti-racist and equity policies were drafted after 2010. Yet, recent events and the current sociopolitical climate signal the need to revisit and strengthen these policies. One district has done just this. In June 2020, the Indianapolis Public School District in Indiana, led by superintendent Aleesia Johnson, unanimously adopted a new Racial Equity Policy and publicly affirmed that Black lives matter in a resolution. Resolution No. 7861 and Board Policy 1619 – Racial Equity Mindset, Commitment, and Actions comes at a time when the momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement is palpable. This district is demonstrating how to use policy, first, to take responsibility for systemic failure to adequately support Black and Brown students in the past, and, second, to plan for a better future.

In June 2020, the Indianapolis Public School District in Indiana, led by superintendent Aleesia Johnson, unanimously adopted a new Racial Equity Policy and publicly affirmed that Black lives matter in a resolution. Resolution No. 7861 and Board Policy 1619 – Racial Equity Mindset, Commitment, and Actions comes at a time when the momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement is palpable.

With this new policy, the Indianapolis Public School District details specific action steps to increase racial equity. These include:

• partnership with the Racial Equity Institute (which helps organizations challenge systems of power and increase equity);
• restructuring, reducing, and auditing police presence and practices in schools;
• implementing a Supplier Diversity Policy with the aim of supporting local businesses (particularly those owned by women, people of color, and veterans);
• creating school-based equity teams for data analysis;
• increasing the recruitment and retention of Black staff;
• ensuring equitable enrollment across school types;
• shifting the budget to be more student centered and allocating funds to aid schools demonstrating the highest need; and
• considering how housing segregation impacts school choice and limiting boundaries to school access in the enrollment process.

We can all learn from this policy, with its high level of detail alongside the very public commitment by the board and superintendent. Not only does this new policy incorporate many of the aforementioned components such as commitment to reform in the areas of funding, data analysis, and school environment, the Indianapolis Public School (IPS) District has also developed strong plans to support its implementation. The district has partnered with the Racial Equity Institute to refine goals and train staff. IPS also signals the importance of considering other areas of anti-racist policy reform such as police presence in schools, and recognizing Juneteenth as a district holiday. It is also worthwhile to note that the IPS district acted swiftly by moving up the release of this new policy (initially set to be released later in the summer) to respond to recent acts of racism and injustice in the national news. Other districts around the country should follow IPS’s lead.

Recommendations for Creating Anti-Racist Policies

The components of existing equity/anti-racist education policies described above provide a general understanding of what these policies should include: equity-oriented objectives for school climate, incident reporting, staffing, data analysis, and funding. The creators of these policies should also consider providing a clear definition of racism, laying out a plan regarding how to communicate the objectives of the policy to the broader community, specifying the individual(s) who will oversee policy implementation, identifying the connections between anti-racist policy and other school policies, and outlining how to leverage partnerships with external organizations committed to increasing equity.

In addition to these components, I share two additional suggestions for those drafting anti-racist policy. The first addresses the accessibility of anti-racist policy and associated tools or resources. The second deals with attention to the personal and interpersonal work that must be done to implement anti-racist policy. I describe each in further detail below.

Accessibility

Several schools and districts made their policies and equity tools easily accessible to staff and the public alike. Having materials and policies readily available increases the likelihood that teachers and school leaders have access to and use resources. It also creates a more collegial environment as other schools and districts attempt to create their own anti-racist policies. For example, the Minneapolis Public School District in Minnesota shares an Equity and Diversity Impact Assessment tool on their website, and the Jefferson County Public School District in Louisville, Kentucky publicly shares their tools for equity analysis. Rather than reinventing tools, other districts may choose to cite and borrow from such existing assessments. The Shaker Heights, Ohio School District website provides a link to an equity resources page with suggested reading and links to equity-oriented organizations, while the Indianapolis Public Schools website has a link to its  “Say Their Names” toolkit “to help foster productive conversations about race and civil disobedience.” Links to these sorts of additional resources, readings, and campaigns offer helpful guidance as schools and districts across the country, and beyond, attempt to strengthen their anti-racist efforts.

Attention to the Personal and Interpersonal Work of Anti-Racist Policy Implementation

Districts and schools seeking to advance anti-racism and equity can attend to the aforementioned components to create effective policy. However, they must also consider the deeply personal work that is required alongside anti-racist reform. Many of these policies ask school staff to interrogate their own biases, positions of power, and privilege. The extent to which these types of personal reflection are encouraged and occur contextualizes policy implementation. Based on a study done with schools in California, the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education identified characteristics of schools with a record of narrowing the impact of racism and inequity. The authors stress the need for equity-oriented school leaders to guide staff and high levels of trust among members of the school community. This report highlights the need to consider the ways in which school-level features and interactions matter for the implementation of anti-racist or equity policy. Thus, in addition to focusing on the components within anti-racist or equity policies, we must also consider the characteristics and dispositions associated with positive change and increased student performance at the school and district level.

Some districts have supported educators in engaging in the vital personal and interpersonal work necessary to advance anti-racism and equity. Pat Savage-Williams, president of Evanston Township Board of Education in Illinois, shares advice for fellow board members looking to challenge racial inequity. In her article posted on the school board website , she promotes many of the components described in this brief, such as being data informed, using school budgets to limit disparities, and developing external partnerships. Additionally, she suggests that board members be willing to undergo a personal journey of reflection and understanding to expand their knowledge of racial issues, and should “expect opposition.” This example underscores the work that must be done on an individual and interpersonal level to make these policies come alive.

This policy described the topics addressed in anti-racist schooling policies and outlined the shifts educational leaders are making to strengthen and clarify not only their policies, but also their personal stance on racism and equity.Policymakers must consider how they define racism, the objectives of anti-racist policy, and how to make the policy actionable. After creating and revising anti-racist policies, policymakers must also consider the characteristics of the school community in which these documents will live. Following these steps can lead to policy changes that interrupt the status quo. As students and communities demand change, educational institutions must consider how they will respond and whether that response disrupts or facilitates systems of inequity.  

Britney L. Jones is a doctoral candidate in the Learning, Leadership, and Education Policy program at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education. Her research interests include culturally relevant and inclusive practices in K-12 contexts with a focus on teachers’ sociopolitical consciousness. Her doctoral work follows a BA in education studies and an MA in elementary teaching, both from Brown University. Britney also worked previously as a fourth-grade teacher and science curriculum developer. For more information, contact [email protected] .

CEPA is a research center based at the Neag School that seeks to inform educational leaders and policymakers on issues related to the development, implementation, and consequences of education policies.  Learn more about CEPA at  cepare.uconn.edu . Access the original PDF of this issue brief (including the complete Appendix).

Related Stories:

• Anti-Racist Resources for Students, Educators, and Citizens

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Exploring Equity: Race and Ethnicity

• Posted February 18, 2021
• By Gianna Cacciatore
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• Inequality and Education Gaps
• Moral, Civic, and Ethical Education
• Teachers and Teaching

The history of education in the United States is rife with instances of violence and oppression along lines of race and ethnicity. For educators, leading conversations about race and racism is a challenging, but necessary, part of their work.

“Schools operate within larger contexts: systems of race, racism, and white supremacy; systems of migration and ethnic identity formation; patterns of socialization; the changing realities of capitalism and politics,” explains historian and Harvard lecturer Timothy Patrick McCarthy , co-faculty lead of Race and Ethnicity in Context, a new module offered at the Harvard Graduate School of Education this January as part of a pilot of HGSE’s Equity and Opportunity Foundations course. “How do we understand the role that racial and ethnic identity play with respect to equity and opportunity within an educational context?”

>> Learn more about Equity and Opportunity and HGSE’s other foundational learning experiences.

For educators exploring question in their own homes, schools, and communities, McCarthy and co-faculty lead Ashley Ison, an HGSE doctoral student, offer five ways to get started.

1.    Begin with the self.

Practitioners enter conversations about race and racism from different backgrounds, with different lived experiences, personal and professional perspectives, and funds of knowledge in their grasps. Given diverse contexts and realities, it is important that leaders encourage personal transformation and growth. Educators should consider how race and racism, as well as racial and ethnic identity formation, impact their lives as educational professionals, as parents, and as policymakers – whatever roles they hold in society. “This is personal work, but that personal work is also political work,” says Ison.

2.    Model vulnerability.

Entering into discussions of race and racism can be challenging, even for those with experience in this work. A key part of enabling participants to lean into the challenge is being vulnerable. “You have trust your students,” explains McCarthy. “Part of that is modeling authentic vulnerability and proximity to the work.” This can be done by modeling discussion skills, like sharing the space and engaging directly with the comments of other participants, as well as by opening up personally to participants.  

“Fear can impact how people feel talking about race and ethnicity in an inter-group space,” says Ison. Courage, openness, and trust are key to overcoming that fear and enabling listening, which ultimately allows for critical thinking and change.

3.    Be transparent.

Part of being vulnerable is being fully transparent with your students from day one. “Intentions are important,” explains McCarthy. “The gap between intention and impact is often rooted in a lack of transparency about where you’re coming from or where you are hoping to go.”

4.    Center voices of color.

Voice and story are powerful tools in this work. Leaders must consider whose voices and stories take precedence on the syllabus. “Consider highlighting authors of color, in particular, who are thinking and writing about these issues,” says Ison. Becoming familiar with a variety of perspectives can help practitioners understand the voices and ideas that exist, she explains.

“Voice and storytelling can bear witness to the various kinds of systematic injustices and inequities we are looking at, but they also function as sources of power for imagining and reimagining the world we are trying to build, all while providing a deeper knowledge of the world as it has existed historically,” adds McCarthy.

5.    Prioritize discussion and reflection.

Since this work is as much about critical thinking as it is about content, it is important for educators to make space for discussion and reflection, at the whole-class, small-group, and individual levels. Ison and McCarthy encourage educators to allow students to generate and guide the discussion of predetermined course materials. They also recommend facilitating small group reflections that may spark conversation that can extend into other spaces outside of the classroom.

Selected Resources:

• Poor, but Privileged
• NPR: "The Importance of Diversity in Teaching Staff”
• TED Talk with Clint Smith: "The Danger of Silence"

More Stories from the Series:

• Exploring Equity: Citizenship and Nationality
• Exploring Equity: Gender and Sexuality
• Exploring Equity: Dis/ability
• Exploring Equity: Class

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How Racism Affects Children of Color in Public Schools

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Institutional racism doesn’t just affect adults but children in K-12 schools as well. Anecdotes from families, research studies, and discrimination lawsuits all reveal that children of color face bias in schools. They’re disciplined more harshly, less likely to be identified as gifted, or to have access to quality teachers, to name but a few examples.

Racism in schools has serious consequences—from fueling the school-to-prison pipeline to traumatizing children of color .

Racial Disparities in School Suspensions

Black students are three times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their White peers, according to the U.S. Department of Education.   And in the American South, racial disparities in punitive discipline are even greater. A 2015 report from the University of Pennsylvania Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education found that 13 Southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia) were responsible for 55% of the 1.2 million suspensions involving Black students nationwide.  

These states also accounted for 50% of expulsions involving Black students nationally, according to the report, titled “Disproportionate Impact of K-12 School Suspension and Expulsion on Black Students in southern States.” The finding most indicative of racial bias is that in 84 Southern school districts, 100% of students suspended were Black.

Disproportionate Rates of Discipline in Preschool

And grade school students aren’t the only Black children facing harsh forms of school discipline. Even Black preschool students are more likely to be suspended than students of other races. The same report showed that while Black students make up just 18% of children in preschool, they represent nearly half of preschool children suspended.

“I think most people would be shocked that those numbers would be true in preschool because we think of 4- and 5-year-olds as being innocent,” Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of the think tank Advancement Project told CBS News about the finding. “But we do know that schools are using zero-tolerance policies for our youngest also, that while we think our children need a head start, schools are kicking them out instead.”

Preschool children sometimes engage in troublesome behavior such as kicking, hitting, and biting, but quality preschools have behavior intervention plans in place to counter these forms of acting out. Furthermore, it’s highly unlikely that only Black children act out in preschool, a stage in life in which kids are notorious for having temper tantrums.

Given how Black preschoolers are disproportionately targeted for suspensions, it’s very likely that race plays a role in which children teachers single out for punitive discipline. In fact, a 2016 study published in Psychological Science showed that White people begin to perceive Black boys as threatening at just 5 years old, associating them with adjectives such as “violent,” “dangerous,” “hostile,” and “aggressive.”  

Consequences of Suspensions

The negative racial biases Black children face lead to high suspension rates that cause excessive absences in addition to preventing Black students from receiving education of the same quality as their White peers, both of these factors producing a stark achievement gap. Studies have shown that this can result in students falling behind academically, not reading at grade level by third grade, and eventually dropping out of school.   Pushing children out of class increases the chances that they will have contact with the criminal justice system.   A 2016 study published on children and suicide suggested that punitive discipline may be one of the reasons suicide rates among Black boys are rising.  

Of course, boys aren’t the only Black children targeted for punitive discipline in school. Black girls are more likely than all other female students (and some groups of boys) to be suspended or expelled as well.  

Low Representation in Gifted Programs

Poor children and children of color are not only less likely to be identified as gifted and talented but more likely to be identified as requiring special education services by teachers.

A 2016 report published by the American Educational Research Association found that Black third graders are half as likely as White third graders to participate in gifted and talented programs. Written by Vanderbilt University scholars Jason Grissom and Christopher Redding, the report, “Discretion and Disproportionality: Explaining the Underrepresentation of High-Achieving Students of Color in Gifted Programs,” also found that Hispanic students were also about half as likely as White people to be involved in gifted programs.

Why does this imply that racial bias is at play and those White students aren’t just naturally more gifted than children of color?

Because when children of color have teachers of color , the chances are higher that they will be identified as gifted.   This indicates that White teachers largely overlook giftedness in Black and brown children.

How Gifted Children Are Identified

Identifying a student as gifted involves a number of considerations. Gifted children may not have the best grades in the class. In fact, they may be bored in class and underachieve as a result. But standardized test scores, portfolios of schoolwork, and the ability of such children to tackle complex subjects despite tuning out in class may all be signs of giftedness.

When a school district in Florida changed the screening criteria for identifying gifted children, officials found that the number of gifted students in all racial groups rose. Rather than rely on teacher or parent referrals for the gifted program, this district used a universal screening process that required all second graders to take a nonverbal test to identify them as gifted. Nonverbal tests are said to be more objective measures of giftedness than verbal tests, especially for English language learners or children who don’t use Standard English.

Students who scored well on the test then moved on to I.Q. tests (which also face allegations of bias). Using the nonverbal test in combination with the I.Q. test led to the odds of Black students being identified as gifted rose by 74% and of Hispanics being identified as gifted by 118%.  

Lower Quality Education for Students of Color

A mountain of research has found that poor Black and brown children are the youth least likely to have highly qualified teachers. A study published in 2015 called “Uneven Playing Field? Assessing the Teacher Quality Gap Between Advantaged and Disadvantaged Students” found that in Washington, Black, Hispanic, and Native American youth were most likely to have teachers with the least amount of experience, the worst licensure exam scores, and the poorest record of improving student test scores.  

Related research has found that Black, Hispanic, and Native American youth have less access to honors and advanced placement (AP) classes than White youth do. In particular, they are less likely to enroll in advanced science and math classes. This can reduce their chances of being admitted to a four-year college, many of which require completion of at least one high-level math class for admission.  

Students of Color Overpoliced and Segregated

Not only are students of color least likely to be identified as gifted and enroll in honors classes, but they are also more likely to attend schools with a greater police presence, increasing the odds that they will enter the criminal justice system. The presence of law enforcement on school campuses also increases the risk of such students being exposed to police violence.   Recordings of school police slamming girls of color to the ground during altercations have recently sparked outrage across the nation.

Students of color face racial microaggressions in schools as well, such as being criticized by teachers and administrators for wearing their hair in styles that reflect their cultural heritage. Both Black students and Native American students have been reprimanded in schools for wearing their hair in its natural state or in braided styles.

Worsening matters is that public schools are increasingly segregated, more than they were in the 1970s. Black and brown students are most likely to attend schools with other Black and brown students. Students below the poverty line are most likely to attend schools with other poor students.  

As the nation’s racial demographics shift, these disparities pose serious risks to America’s future. Students of color comprise a growing share of public school students. If the United States is to remain a world superpower for generations, it’s incumbent upon Americans to ensure that disadvantaged students receive the same standard of education that privileged students do.

"Data Snapshot: School Discipline." Civil Rights Data Collection. U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, Mar. 2014.

Smith, Edward J., and Shaun R. Harper. "Disproportionate Impact of K-12 School Suspension and Expulsion on Black Students in Southern States." University of Pennsylvania Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education, 2015.

Todd, Andrew R., et al. "Does Seeing Faces of Young Black Boys Facilitate the Identification of Threatening Stimuli?" Psychological Science , vol. 27, no. 3, 1 Feb. 2016, doi:10.1177/0956797615624492

Bowman, Barbara T., et al. "Addressing the African American Achievement Gap: Three Leading Educators Issue a Call to Action." Young Children , vol. 73, no.2, May 2018.

Raufu, Abiodun. "School-to-Prison Pipeline: Impact of School Discipline on African American Students." Journal of Education & Social Policy, vol. 7, no. 1, Mar. 2017.

Sheftall, Arielle H., et al. "Suicide in Elementary School-Aged Children and Early Adolescents." Pediatrics , vol. 138, no. 4, Oct. 2016, doi:10.1542/peds.2016-0436

Grissom, Jason A., and Christopher Redding. "Discretion and Disproportionality: Explaining the Underrepresentation of High-Achieving Students of Color in Gifted Programs." AERA Open , 18 Jan. 2016, doi:10.1177/2332858415622175

Card, David, and Laura Giuliano. "Universal Screening Increases the Representation of Low-Income and Minority Students in Gifted Education." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 113, no. 48, 29 Nov. 2016, pp. 13678-13683., doi:10.1073/pnas.1605043113

Goldhaber, Dan, et al. "Uneven Playing Field? Assessing the Teacher Quality Gap Between Advantaged and Disadvantaged Students." Educational Researcher, vol. 44, no. 5, 1 June 2015, doi:10.3102/0013189X15592622

Klopfenstein, Kristin. "Advanced Placement: Do Minorities Have Equal Opportunity?" Economics of Education Review , vol. 23, no. 2, Apr. 2004, pp. 115-131., doi:10.1016/S0272-7757(03)00076-1

Javdani, Shabnam. "Policing Education: An Empirical Review of the Challenges and Impact of the Work of School Police Officers." American Journal of Community Psychology , vol. 63, no. 3-4, June 2019, pp. 253-269., doi:10.1002/ajcp.12306

McArdle, Nancy, and Dolores Acevedo-Garcia. "Consequences of Segregation for Children’s Opportunity and Wellbeing." A Shared Future: Fostering Communities of Inclusion in an Era of Inequality. Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, 2017.

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• Cooper v. Aaron: Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impact
• School Enrollment in Apartheid Era South Africa
• Brown v. Board of Education
• Understanding 4 Different Types of Racism
• Unlearning Racism: Resources for Teaching Anti-Racism
• The Roots of Colorism, or Skin Tone Discrimination
• Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools
• Comparison of Private and Public Schools
• 5 Examples of Institutional Racism in the United States
• How Race and Gender Biases Impact Students in Higher Ed
• Black Women Are the Most Educated Group in the U.S.
• Raising Biracial Children to Be Well-Adjusted
• What Is De Facto Segregation? Definition and Current Examples

Ending Discrimination in Education: a key instrument to protect the right to education

With the world’s most vulnerable children and youth at risk of missing out on education as a fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, UNESCO is urging all countries to protect better the fundamental right to learn by ratifying the Convention against Discrimination in Education, adopted on 14 December 60 years ago. 

As part of a new campaign to raise awareness of the Convention, UNESCO is  launching a conversation  about extending our understanding of the right to education to reflect increasingly crucial global needs, namely digital inclusion, learners’ data privacy and access to lifelong learning.

The Convention, the first legally binding international instrument entirely dedicated to the right to education, has been ratified by 106 countries to date: 28% of countries in the Asia Pacific region, 46.8% in sub-Saharan Africa, 60.6% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 63.1% in Arab States to 68% and 88% respectively in Western Europe and North America, and Eastern Europe.

When they ratify the Convention, countries establish, or upgrade, policy and/or legal frameworks to meet international standards, guarantee the right to education and counter discrimination. As such, the Convention represents a powerful tool to advance the 4th Sustainable Development Goal “to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all."

Discrimination remains pervasive in education, whether on the basis of disability, gender, language, income, ethnicity, religion, migration or displacement status. About 258 million children and youth around the world are out of school, while 773 million adults, two-thirds of whom are women, are illiterate, according to data from UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities worldwide, increasing the likelihood that vulnerable students be left behind. UNESCO estimates that over 24 million learners, from the pre-primary to tertiary levels, including more than 11 million girls, risk dropping out of education. According to UNESCO’s Global Monitoring Report, about 40% of low and lower-middle income countries have not been able to support disadvantaged learners during school closures, exacerbating inequalities. One third of students – close to 500 million – were not able to access remote learning solutions, underlining the urgency of making connectivity a right.

To build back better, education systems must integrate rights-based, inclusive and non-discriminatory practices in line with the obligations enshrined in the Convention. 

UNESCO’s “End Discrimination in Education” campaign aims to raise awareness of the Convention, strengthen implementation and monitoring, extend ratification and stimulate reflection on new related rights needed to prevent an exacerbation of inequalities in the digital age.

• Media Contact:  Clare O’Hagan
• Read the  text of the Convention
• Join the UNESCO  ‘Say no to discrimination in education’  #RightToEducation campaign 
• UNESCO’s work on the  right to education
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70 years after brown v. board of education, new research shows rise in school segregation.

As the nation prepares to mark the 70th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education , a new report from researchers at Stanford and USC shows that racial and economic segregation among schools has grown steadily in large school districts over the past three decades — an increase that appears to be driven in part by policies favoring school choice over integration.

Analyzing data from U.S. public schools going back to 1967, the researchers found that segregation between white and Black students has increased by 64 percent since 1988 in the 100 largest districts, and segregation by economic status has increased by about 50 percent since 1991.

The report also provides new evidence about the forces driving recent trends in school segregation, showing that the expansion of charter schools has played a major role.  

The findings were released on May 6 with the launch of the Segregation Explorer , a new interactive website from the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University. The website provides searchable data on racial and economic school segregation in U.S. states, counties, metropolitan areas, and school districts from 1991 to 2022. 

“School segregation levels are not at pre- Brown levels, but they are high and have been rising steadily since the late 1980s,” said Sean Reardon , the Professor of Poverty and Inequality in Education at Stanford Graduate School of Education and faculty director of the Educational Opportunity Project. “In most large districts, school segregation has increased while residential segregation and racial economic inequality have declined, and our findings indicate that policy choices – not demographic changes – are driving the increase.” 

“There’s a tendency to attribute segregation in schools to segregation in neighborhoods,” said Ann Owens , a professor of sociology and public policy at USC. “But we’re finding that the story is more complicated than that.”

Assessing the rise

In the Brown v. Board decision issued on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and established that “separate but equal” schools were not only inherently unequal but unconstitutional. The ruling paved the way for future decisions that led to rapid school desegregation in many school districts in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Though segregation in most school districts is much lower than it was 60 years ago, the researchers found that over the past three decades, both racial and economic segregation in large districts increased. Much of the increase in economic segregation since 1991, measured by segregation between students eligible and ineligible for free lunch, occurred in the last 15 years.

White-Hispanic and white-Asian segregation, while lower on average than white-Black segregation, have both more than doubled in large school districts since the 1980s. 

Racial-economic segregation – specifically the difference in the proportion of free-lunch-eligible students between the average white and Black or Hispanic student’s schools – has increased by 70 percent since 1991. 

School segregation is strongly associated with achievement gaps between racial and ethnic groups, especially the rate at which achievement gaps widen during school, the researchers said.  

“Segregation appears to shape educational outcomes because it concentrates Black and Hispanic students in higher-poverty schools, which results in unequal learning opportunities,” said Reardon, who is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and a faculty affiliate of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning . 

Policies shaping recent trends 

The recent rise in school segregation appears to be the direct result of educational policy and legal decisions, the researchers said. 

Both residential segregation and racial disparities in income declined between 1990 and 2020 in most large school districts. “Had nothing else changed, that trend would have led to lower school segregation,” said Owens. 

But since 1991, roughly two-thirds of districts that were under court-ordered desegregation have been released from court oversight. Meanwhile, since 1998, the charter sector – a form of expanded school choice – has grown.

Expanding school choice could influence segregation levels in different ways: If families sought schools that were more diverse than the ones available in their neighborhood, it could reduce segregation. But the researchers found that in districts where the charter sector expanded most rapidly in the 2000s and 2010s, segregation grew the most. 

The researchers’ analysis also quantified the extent to which the release from court orders accounted for the rise in school segregation. They found that, together, the release from court oversight and the expansion of choice accounted entirely for the rise in school segregation from 2000 to 2019.

The researchers noted enrollment policies that school districts can implement to mitigate segregation, such as voluntary integration programs, socioeconomic-based student assignment policies, and school choice policies that affirmatively promote integration. 

“School segregation levels are high, troubling, and rising in large districts,” said Reardon. “These findings should sound an alarm for educators and policymakers.”

Additional collaborators on the project include Demetra Kalogrides, Thalia Tom, and Heewon Jang. This research, including the development of the Segregation Explorer data and website, was supported by the Russell Sage Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.   

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Unequal Opportunity: Race and Education

Subscribe to governance weekly, linda darling-hammond ld linda darling-hammond.

March 1, 1998

• 13 min read

W.E.B. DuBois was right about the problem of the 21st century. The color line divides us still. In recent years, the most visible evidence of this in the public policy arena has been the persistent attack on affirmative action in higher education and employment. From the perspective of many Americans who believe that the vestiges of discrimination have disappeared, affirmative action now provides an unfair advantage to minorities. From the perspective of others who daily experience the consequences of ongoing discrimination, affirmative action is needed to protect opportunities likely to evaporate if an affirmative obligation to act fairly does not exist. And for Americans of all backgrounds, the allocation of opportunity in a society that is becoming ever more dependent on knowledge and education is a source of great anxiety and concern.

At the center of these debates are interpretations of the gaps in educational achievement between white and non-Asian minority students as measured by standardized test scores. The presumption that guides much of the conversation is that equal opportunity now exists; therefore, continued low levels of achievement on the part of minority students must be a function of genes, culture, or a lack of effort and will (see, for example, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray’s The Bell Curve and Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom’s America in Black and White).

The assumptions that undergird this debate miss an important reality: educational outcomes for minority children are much more a function of their unequal access to key educational resources, including skilled teachers and quality curriculum, than they are a function of race. In fact, the U.S. educational system is one of the most unequal in the industrialized world, and students routinely receive dramatically different learning opportunities based on their social status. In contrast to European and Asian nations that fund schools centrally and equally, the wealthiest 10 percent of U.S. school districts spend nearly 10 times more than the poorest 10 percent, and spending ratios of 3 to 1 are common within states. Despite stark differences in funding, teacher quality, curriculum, and class sizes, the prevailing view is that if students do not achieve, it is their own fault. If we are ever to get beyond the problem of the color line, we must confront and address these inequalities.

The Nature of Educational Inequality

Americans often forget that as late as the 1960s most African-American, Latino, and Native American students were educated in wholly segregated schools funded at rates many times lower than those serving whites and were excluded from many higher education institutions entirely. The end of legal segregation followed by efforts to equalize spending since 1970 has made a substantial difference for student achievement. On every major national test, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the gap in minority and white students’ test scores narrowed substantially between 1970 and 1990, especially for elementary school students. On the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the scores of African-American students climbed 54 points between 1976 and 1994, while those of white students remained stable.

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Even so, educational experiences for minority students have continued to be substantially separate and unequal. Two-thirds of minority students still attend schools that are predominantly minority, most of them located in central cities and funded well below those in neighboring suburban districts. Recent analyses of data prepared for school finance cases in Alabama, New Jersey, New York, Louisiana, and Texas have found that on every tangible measure—from qualified teachers to curriculum offerings—schools serving greater numbers of students of color had significantly fewer resources than schools serving mostly white students. As William L. Taylor and Dianne Piche noted in a 1991 report to Congress: Inequitable systems of school finance inflict disproportionate harm on minority and economically disadvantaged students. On an inter-state basis, such students are concentrated in states, primarily in the South, that have the lowest capacities to finance public education. On an intra-state basis, many of the states with the widest disparities in educational expenditures are large industrial states. In these states, many minorities and economically disadvantaged students are located in property-poor urban districts which fare the worst in educational expenditures (or) in rural districts which suffer from fiscal inequity.

Jonathan Kozol s 1991 Savage Inequalities described the striking differences between public schools serving students of color in urban settings and their suburban counterparts, which typically spend twice as much per student for populations with many fewer special needs. Contrast MacKenzie High School in Detroit, where word processing courses are taught without word processors because the school cannot afford them, or East St. Louis Senior High School, whose biology lab has no laboratory tables or usable dissecting kits, with nearby suburban schools where children enjoy a computer hookup to Dow Jones to study stock transactions and science laboratories that rival those in some industries. Or contrast Paterson, New Jersey, which could not afford the qualified teachers needed to offer foreign language courses to most high school students, with Princeton, where foreign languages begin in elementary school.

Even within urban school districts, schools with high concentrations of low-income and minority students receive fewer instructional resources than others. And tracking systems exacerbate these inequalities by segregating many low-income and minority students within schools. In combination, these policies leave minority students with fewer and lower-quality books, curriculum materials, laboratories, and computers; significantly larger class sizes; less qualified and experienced teachers; and less access to high-quality curriculum. Many schools serving low-income and minority students do not even offer the math and science courses needed for college, and they provide lower-quality teaching in the classes they do offer. It all adds up.

What Difference Does it Make?

Since the 1966 Coleman report, Equality of Educational Opportunity, another debate has waged as to whether money makes a difference to educational outcomes. It is certainly possible to spend money ineffectively; however, studies that have developed more sophisticated measures of schooling show how money, properly spent, makes a difference. Over the past 30 years, a large body of research has shown that four factors consistently influence student achievement: all else equal, students perform better if they are educated in smaller schools where they are well known (300 to 500 students is optimal), have smaller class sizes (especially at the elementary level), receive a challenging curriculum, and have more highly qualified teachers.

Minority students are much less likely than white children to have any of these resources. In predominantly minority schools, which most students of color attend, schools are large (on average, more than twice as large as predominantly white schools and reaching 3,000 students or more in most cities); on average, class sizes are 15 percent larger overall (80 percent larger for non-special education classes); curriculum offerings and materials are lower in quality; and teachers are much less qualified in terms of levels of education, certification, and training in the fields they teach. And in integrated schools, as UCLA professor Jeannie Oakes described in the 1980s and Harvard professor Gary Orfield’s research has recently confirmed, most minority students are segregated in lower-track classes with larger class sizes, less qualified teachers, and lower-quality curriculum.

Research shows that teachers’ preparation makes a tremendous difference to children’s learning. In an analysis of 900 Texas school districts, Harvard economist Ronald Ferguson found that teachers’ expertise—as measured by scores on a licensing examination, master’s degrees, and experienc—was the single most important determinant of student achievement, accounting for roughly 40 percent of the measured variance in students’ reading and math achievement gains in grades 1-12. After controlling for socioeconomic status, the large disparities in achievement between black and white students were almost entirely due to differences in the qualifications of their teachers. In combination, differences in teacher expertise and class sizes accounted for as much of the measured variance in achievement as did student and family background (figure 1).

Ferguson and Duke economist Helen Ladd repeated this analysis in Alabama and again found sizable influences of teacher qualifications and smaller class sizes on achievement gains in math and reading. They found that more of the difference between the high- and low-scoring districts was explained by teacher qualifications and class sizes than by poverty, race, and parent education.

Meanwhile, a Tennessee study found that elementary school students who are assigned to ineffective teachers for three years in a row score nearly 50 percentile points lower on achievement tests than those assigned to highly effective teachers over the same period. Strikingly, minority students are about half as likely to be assigned to the most effective teachers and twice as likely to be assigned to the least effective.

Minority students are put at greatest risk by the American tradition of allowing enormous variation in the qualifications of teachers. The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future found that new teachers hired without meeting certification standards (25 percent of all new teachers) are usually assigned to teach the most disadvantaged students in low-income and high-minority schools, while the most highly educated new teachers are hired largely by wealthier schools (figure 2). Students in poor or predominantly minority schools are much less likely to have teachers who are fully qualified or hold higher-level degrees. In schools with the highest minority enrollments, for example, students have less than a 50 percent chance of getting a math or science teacher with a license and a degree in the field. In 1994, fully one-third of teachers in high-poverty schools taught without a minor in their main field and nearly 70 percent taught without a minor in their secondary teaching field.

Studies of underprepared teachers consistently find that they are less effective with students and that they have difficulty with curriculum development, classroom management, student motivation, and teaching strategies. With little knowledge about how children grow, learn, and develop, or about what to do to support their learning, these teachers are less likely to understand students’ learning styles and differences, to anticipate students’ knowledge and potential difficulties, or to plan and redirect instruction to meet students’ needs. Nor are they likely to see it as their job to do so, often blaming the students if their teaching is not successful.

Teacher expertise and curriculum quality are interrelated, because a challenging curriculum requires an expert teacher. Research has found that both students and teachers are tracked: that is, the most expert teachers teach the most demanding courses to the most advantaged students, while lower-track students assigned to less able teachers receive lower-quality teaching and less demanding material. Assignment to tracks is also related to race: even when grades and test scores are comparable, black students are more likely to be assigned to lower-track, nonacademic classes.

When Opportunity Is More Equal

What happens when students of color do get access to more equal opportunities’ Studies find that curriculum quality and teacher skill make more difference to educational outcomes than the initial test scores or racial backgrounds of students. Analyses of national data from both the High School and Beyond Surveys and the National Educational Longitudinal Surveys have demonstrated that, while there are dramatic differences among students of various racial and ethnic groups in course-taking in such areas as math, science, and foreign language, for students with similar course-taking records, achievement test score differences by race or ethnicity narrow substantially.

Robert Dreeben and colleagues at the University of Chicago conducted a long line of studies documenting both the relationship between educational opportunities and student performance and minority students’ access to those opportunities. In a comparative study of 300 Chicago first graders, for example, Dreeben found that African-American and white students who had comparable instruction achieved comparable levels of reading skill. But he also found that the quality of instruction given African-American students was, on average, much lower than that given white students, thus creating a racial gap in aggregate achievement at the end of first grade. In fact, the highest-ability group in Dreeben’s sample was in a school in a low-income African-American neighborhood. These children, though, learned less during first grade than their white counterparts because their teacher was unable to provide the challenging instruction they deserved.

When schools have radically different teaching forces, the effects can be profound. For example, when Eleanor Armour-Thomas and colleagues compared a group of exceptionally effective elementary schools with a group of low-achieving schools with similar demographic characteristics in New York City, roughly 90 percent of the variance in student reading and mathematics scores at grades 3, 6, and 8 was a function of differences in teacher qualifications. The schools with highly qualified teachers serving large numbers of minority and low-income students performed as well as much more advantaged schools.

Most studies have estimated effects statistically. However, an experiment that randomly assigned seventh grade “at-risk”students to remedial, average, and honors mathematics classes found that the at-risk students who took the honors class offering a pre-algebra curriculum ultimately outperformed all other students of similar backgrounds. Another study compared African-American high school youth randomly placed in public housing in the Chicago suburbs with city-placed peers of equivalent income and initial academic attainment and found that the suburban students, who attended largely white and better-funded schools, were substantially more likely to take challenging courses, perform well academically, graduate on time, attend college, and find good jobs.

What Can Be Done?

This state of affairs is not inevitable. Last year the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future issued a blueprint for a comprehensive set of policies to ensure a “caring, competent, and qualified teacher for every child,” as well as schools organized to support student success. Twelve states are now working directly with the commission on this agenda, and others are set to join this year. Several pending bills to overhaul the federal Higher Education Act would ensure that highly qualified teachers are recruited and prepared for students in all schools. Federal policymakers can develop incentives, as they have in medicine, to guarantee well-prepared teachers in shortage fields and high-need locations. States can equalize education spending, enforce higher teaching standards, and reduce teacher shortages, as Connecticut, Kentucky, Minnesota, and North Carolina have already done. School districts can reallocate resources from administrative superstructures and special add-on programs to support better-educated teachers who offer a challenging curriculum in smaller schools and classes, as restructured schools as far apart as New York and San Diego have done. These schools, in communities where children are normally written off to lives of poverty, welfare dependency, or incarceration, already produce much higher levels of achievement for students of color, sending more than 90 percent of their students to college. Focusing on what matters most can make a real difference in what children have the opportunity to learn. This, in turn, makes a difference in what communities can accomplish.

An Entitlement to Good Teaching

The common presumption about educational inequality—that it resides primarily in those students who come to school with inadequate capacities to benefit from what the school has to offer—continues to hold wide currency because the extent of inequality in opportunities to learn is largely unknown. We do not currently operate schools on the presumption that students might be entitled to decent teaching and schooling as a matter of course. In fact, some state and local defendants have countered school finance and desegregation cases with assertions that such remedies are not required unless it can be proven that they will produce equal outcomes. Such arguments against equalizing opportunities to learn have made good on DuBois’s prediction that the problem of the 20th century would be the problem of the color line.

But education resources do make a difference, particularly when funds are used to purchase well-qualified teachers and high-quality curriculum and to create personalized learning communities in which children are well known. In all of the current sturm und drang about affirmative action, “special treatment,” and the other high-volatility buzzwords for race and class politics in this nation, I would offer a simple starting point for the next century s efforts: no special programs, just equal educational opportunity.

Governance Studies

Dr. Neil A. Lewis, Jr.

May 14, 2024

Katharine Meyer

May 7, 2024

Jamie Klinenberg, Jon Valant, Nicolas Zerbino

Articles on Racism in schools

Displaying 1 - 20 of 26 articles.

More ethnic minority teachers are needed in UK schools – but teaching can affect their mental health and wellbeing

Terra Glowach , University of the West of England ; Malcolm Richards , University of the West of England , and Rafael Mitchell , University of Bristol

School attendance problems are complex, and our solutions need to be as well

Jess Whitley , L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa and Beth Saggers , Queensland University of Technology

Even school boards are now experiencing severe political polarization

Sachin Maharaj , L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa ; Stephanie Tuters , University of Toronto , and Vidya Shah , York University, Canada

To serve school communities and address inequities after COVID-19 , principals must become activists

Kenneth MacKinnon , Western University

Black youth yearn for Black teachers to disrupt the daily silencing of their experiences

Funke Oba , Toronto Metropolitan University

In Mexico, how erasing Black history fuels anti-Black  racism

Marycarmen Lara Villanueva , University of Toronto

Dismantling anti-Black racism in our schools: Accountability measures are key

Tanitiã Munroe , University of Toronto

Bullying, racism and being ‘different’: Why some families are opting for remote learning regardless of  COVID-19

Rebecca Collins-Nelsen , McMaster University ; J. Marshall Beier , McMaster University , and Sandeep Raha , McMaster University

Anti-Black racism is not a ‘consensual schoolyard fight’

Teresa Anne Fowler , Concordia University of Edmonton ; Cecilia Bukutu , Concordia University of Edmonton , and Elizabeth Coker Farrell , Concordia University of Edmonton

How teachers remember their own childhoods affects how they challenge school inequities

Lisa Farley , York University, Canada ; Debbie Sonu , Hunter College ; Julie C. Garlen , Carleton University , and Sandra Chang-Kredl , Concordia University

How to curb anti-Black racism in Canadian schools

Black History: How racism in Ontario schools today is connected to a history of segregation

Funké Aladejebi , University of Toronto

Racism contributes to poor attendance of Indigenous students in Alberta schools: New study

Teresa Anne Fowler , Concordia University of Edmonton

Schools after coronavirus: Seize ‘teachable moments’ about racism and inequities

Ardavan Eizadirad , Wilfrid Laurier University and Steve Sider , Wilfrid Laurier University

For a fairer education system, get the police out of schools

Celebrating diversity isn’t enough: Schools need anti-racist curriculum

Rola Koubeissy , Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

Communities can combat racism, hate and extremism with education

Kawser Ahmed , University of Winnipeg

In Doug Ford’s e-learning gamble, high school students will lose

Beyhan Farhadi , University of Toronto

Québec’s Bill 21 may embolden religious bullying in schools

W. Y. Alice Chan , McGill University

Racialized student achievement gaps are a  red-alert

Vidya Shah , York University, Canada

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• Anti-Black racism
• Anti-racism
• Black History Month
• Black teachers
• Critical race
• Ontario schools

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Associate professor, Graduate Program Director, School of Social Work, Toronto Metropolitan University

Assistant Professor, Education, Concordia University of Edmonton

PhD candidate (ABD) and researcher, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, York University, Canada

Postdoctoral research fellow, Goldsmiths, University of London

Professor - Autism and inclusive education, Queensland University of Technology

Pro Vice Chancellor Research, Western Sydney University

Ontario Research Chair in Academic Achievement and At-Risk Youth, McMaster University

Equity and Diversity Education Manager, Western Sydney University

Lecturer in Comparative and International Education, University of Bristol

PhD Candidate, Sociology, York University, Canada

Lecturer and Researcher in the Department of Education Policy Studies, Stellenbosch University

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A New Way for Educators to Think About School Segregation

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In the last 15 years, students in the nation’s large school districts have become much more isolated racially and economically. A national longitudinal study of schools suggests less court oversight and more parental choice may be to blame.

Researchers Sean Reardon of Stanford University and Ann Owens of the University of Southern California tracked the racial and economic demographics of a nationally representative sample of schools from 1967 to 1990 and every public school in the country from 1991 to 2022. This allowed them to measure how much exposure a student of one race or income level would have to students of other racial or socioeconomic backgrounds.

Schools and districts have become much more racially integrated than they were before the Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that racially separate school systems were unequal and unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education . However, the researchers found that students’ exposure to students of other races and income levels regressed since 1991.

In 533 school districts serving at least 2,500 Black students—64 percent of all Black K-12 public students—Black-white segregation has risen by a quarter since 1991. Hispanic and Asian students also attend more segregated schools than they did in 1991.

School segregation between students who qualify for free meals and their wealthier peers has also risen 30 percent since 1991 in the highest-poverty districts. Likewise, in the hundred school districts with the highest concentration of students in poverty, racial-economic segregation—the share of students who qualify for free meals in the average white versus Black students’ schools—has risen 60 percent over the same time.

In 2012, Michael Lomax, then president of the United Negro College Fund, told Education Week that the drive for equality that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called “the fierce urgency of now” had birthed the charter school movement as a potentially better alternative for students of color in urban districts. But Owens and Reardon said the expansion of urban charter schools and other choice programs, with the rollback of court oversight, explain the deepening of segregation in these districts.

In most large school districts, Owens and Reardon found neighborhood segregation and inequality declined since 1991, and the researchers said changing residential segregation has not driven racial and economic isolation in schools.

“School systems became more segregated, but that increase in segregation isn’t because neighborhoods got more segregated,” Reardon said. “It’s because school systems stopped trying to create schools that were more integrated than neighborhoods, and let them kind of revert to their neighborhood patterns.”

For example, in 1968, when courts ordered Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., public schools to integrate, the average white student in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in North Carolina attended a school that was 90 percent white and 10 percent Black, while the average Black student attended a school where more than three-quarters of students were Black and only a quarter were white. By 1971, after court-ordered bussing, magnet programs, and race-based school assignment policies, both Black and white students attended schools that were roughly one-third Black and two-thirds white.

School integration stable until court relaxed desegregation order

School integration remained generally stable until the late 1990s, when the court began to relax its desegregation order. In 2001, a federal appeals court ended the desegregation order and ruled schools could no longer use race-based attendance policies. Segregation has risen significantly in the district since then.

Owens noted that most active integration policies, such as bussing students among schools or rezoning attendance boundaries, are costly and without court pressure, “some districts have voluntary programs ... but the sort of real carrots and sticks that came with desegregation orders, you know, those tools just aren’t available to districts anymore.”

“Simultaneously, we had this introduction more broadly towards market-based solutions: this idea of choice systems being a preferred student-assignment policy in a lot of districts,” Owens said. “I wouldn’t want to say it’s entirely about expansion of the charter sector, but as an indicator of broader choice, we see that association between that expanded choice and segregation.”

Owens cautioned that segregation between different districts accounts for more of the overall racial isolation than segregation among schools within individual districts. For example, about 3 in 4 students in Los Angeles Unified schools are Latino, while neighboring Beverly Hills public schools are three-quarters white students.

“In places where a metropolitan area is carved up into lots of districts, residential segregation is higher,” she said, “and part of that seems to be families with kids jockeying to live in their preferred school district.”

The researchers advised school districts and states to work to create more regional approaches to integrating schools.

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Essays About Discrimination: Top 5 Examples and 8 Prompts

You must know how to connect with your readers to write essays about discrimination effectively; read on for our top essay examples, including prompts that will help you write.

Discrimination comes in many forms and still happens to many individuals or groups today. It occurs when there’s a distinction or bias against someone because of their age, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.

Discrimination can happen to anyone wherever and whenever they are. Unfortunately, it’s a problem that society is yet to solve entirely. Here are five in-depth examples of this theme’s subcategories to guide you in creating your essays about discrimination.

1. Essay On Discrimination For Students In Easy Words by Prateek

2. personal discrimination experience by naomi nakatani, 3. prejudice and discrimination by william anderson, 4. socioeconomic class discrimination in luca by krystal ibarra, 5. the new way of discrimination by writer bill, 1. my discrimination experience, 2. what can i do to stop discrimination, 3. discrimination in my community, 4. the cost of discrimination, 5. examples of discrimination, 6. discrimination in sports: segregating men and women, 7. how to stop my discrimination against others, 8. what should groups do to fight discrimination.

“In the current education system, the condition of education and its promotion of equality is very important. The education system should be a good place for each and every student. It must be on the basis of equal opportunities for each student in every country. It must be free of discrimination.”

Prateek starts his essay by telling the story of a student having difficulty getting admitted to a college because of high fees. He then poses the question of how the student will be able to get an education when he can’t have the opportunity to do so in the first place. He goes on to discuss UNESCO’s objectives against discrimination. 

Further in the essay, the author defines discrimination and cites instances when it happens. Prateek also compares past and present discrimination, ending the piece by saying it should stop and everyone deserves to be treated fairly.

“I thought that there is no discrimination before I actually had discrimination… I think we must treat everyone equally even though people speak different languages or have different colors of skin.”

In her short essay, Nakatani shares the experiences that made her feel discriminated against when she visited the US. She includes a fellow guest saying she and her mother can’t use the shared pool in a hotel they stay in because they are Japanese and getting cheated of her money when she bought from a small shop because she can’t speak English very well.

“Whether intentional or not, prejudice and discrimination ensure the continuance of inequality in the United States. Even subconsciously, we are furthering inequality through our actions and reactions to others… Because these forces are universally present in our daily lives, the way we use them or reject them will determine how they affect us.”

Anderson explains the direct relationship between prejudice and discrimination. He also gives examples of these occurrences in the past (blacks and whites segregation) and modern times (sexism, racism, etc.)

He delves into society’s fault for playing the “blame game” and choosing to ignore each other’s perspectives, leading to stereotypes. He also talks about affirmative action committees that serve to protect minorities.

“Something important to point out is that there is prejudice when it comes to people of lower class or economic standing, there are stereotypes that label them as untrustworthy, lazy, and even dangerous. This thought is fed by the just-world phenomenon, that of low economic status are uneducated, lazy, and are more likely to be substance abusers, and thus get what they deserve.”

Ibarra recounts how she discovered Pixar’s Luca and shares what she thought of the animation, focusing on how the film encapsulates socioeconomic discrimination in its settings. She then discusses the characters and their relationships with the protagonist. Finally, Ibarra notes how the movie alluded to flawed characters, such as having a smaller boat, mismatched or recycled kitchen furniture, and no shoes. 

The other cast even taunts Luca, saying he smells and gets his clothes from a dead person. These are typical things marginalized communities experience in real life. At the end of her essay, Ibarra points out how society is dogmatic against the lower class, thinking they are abusers. In Luca, the wealthy antagonist is shown to be violent and lazy.

“Even though the problem of discrimination has calmed down, it still happens… From these past experiences, we can realize that solutions to tough problems come in tough ways.”

The author introduces people who called out discrimination, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Barbara Henry – the only teacher who decided to teach Ruby Bridges, despite her skin color. 

He then moves on to mention the variations of present-day discrimination. He uses Donald Trump and the border he wants to build to keep the Hispanics out as an example. Finally, Bill ends the essay by telling the readers those who discriminate against others are bullies who want to get a reaction out of their victims. 

Do you get intimidated when you need to write an essay? Don’t be! If writing an essay makes you nervous, do it step by step. To start, write a simple 5 paragraph essay .

Prompts on Essays About Discrimination

Below are writing prompts that can inspire you on what to focus on when writing your discrimination essay:

Have you had to go through an aggressor who disliked you because you’re you? Write an essay about this incident, how it happened, what you felt during the episode, and what you did afterward. You can also include how it affected the way you interact with people. For example, did you try to tone down a part of yourself or change how you speak to avoid conflict?

List ways on how you can participate in lessening incidents of discrimination. Your list can include calling out biases, reporting to proper authorities, or spreading awareness of what discrimination is.

Is there an ongoing prejudice you observe in your school, subdivision, etc.? If other people in your community go through this unjust treatment, you can interview them and incorporate their thoughts on the matter.

Tackle what victims of discrimination have to go through daily. You can also talk about how it affected their life in the long run, such as having low self-esteem that limited their potential and opportunities and being frightened of getting involved with other individuals who may be bigots.

For this prompt, you can choose a subtopic to zero in on, like Workplace Discrimination, Disability Discrimination, and others. Then, add sample situations to demonstrate the unfairness better.

What are your thoughts on the different game rules for men and women? Do you believe these rules are just? Cite news incidents to make your essay more credible. For example, you can mention the incident where the Norwegian women’s beach handball team got fined for wearing tops and shorts instead of bikinis.

Since we learn to discriminate because of the society we grew up in, it’s only normal to be biased unintentionally. When you catch yourself having these partialities, what do you do? How do you train yourself not to discriminate against others?

Focus on an area of discrimination and suggest methods to lessen its instances. To give you an idea, you can concentrate on Workplace Discrimination, starting from its hiring process. You can propose that applicants are chosen based on their skills, so the company can implement a hiring procedure where applicants should go through written tests first before personal interviews.

If you instead want to focus on topics that include people from all walks of life, talk about diversity. Here’s an excellent guide on how to write an essay about diversity .

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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Discrimination in Education and Unfair Admission Persuasive Essay

Introduction, necessity of educational equity, consequences of unfair admission, works cited.

An opportunity to receive education is one of the features of a civilized society, where every person has equal rights and may count on entering both secondary and higher institutions. However, issues related to inequality in admission arise periodically, which indicates the lack of close attention to this problem. Inequality as a historical relic is a social challenge, and its manifestations in the education sector cause resonance and public condemnation. Unfair admission has various reasons, including gender, class, financial, and other criteria. Regardless of these causes, the fight against this phenomenon plays an essential role today since supporting any of the prejudices is unacceptable and it is the evidence of gaps in control by responsible boards. This paper explains the significance of educational equality and the need to counter unfair admission.

Certain requirements are imposed on the educational system based on the values ​​recognized in a particular society. Today, most people believe that equal opportunities to obtain appropriate professional training should be a fundamental human right. According to Pomeroy, education cannot be considered the service that is a sign of luxury but rather as the natural opportunity of every citizen, which may be realized in any environment (6). This concept, in turn, generates demand for the equality of rights and freedoms regarding admission to educational institutions.

When considering education the service that can be obtained for money, society creates certain obstacles for low-income families because of such a barrier. This approach is socially unfair due to the different level of countries’ development and their economic situation. In modern culture, special principles of socially equitable access to education are formulated. No criteria should become a hindrance for a person who intends to develop professionally, and national, racial, religious, gender, and other factors cannot justify inequality (Pomeroy 5). Otherwise, there will be a contradiction between human rights laws and such constraints based on prejudices and bias.

Today, when an educational environment is developing actively enough, most students may rely on primary and secondary learning, but further professional training is less accessible due to the aforementioned reasons. Some people may enter institutions at a higher level, but no one can prohibit a person from moving up. The gradation of social groups and strata in accordance with their financial status, nationality, gender, place of residence, and other factors violates human rights. This issue is contentious today because, as practice shows, quite a few people are subject to discrimination. McWhirter et al. argue that about half of immigrant schoolchildren in the United States have encountered inequalities during the educational process (331). Thus, income cannot be the indicator of individual abilities and strengths of those students who intend to improve their professional level not by means of payment but using personal knowledge and skills.

The quality of education is the reflection of modern society, which makes it possible for students to learn to master the behaviors to which they are to conform. In secondary schools, for example, there is a gradual differentiation of children’s teams, and after graduation, pupils may apply to higher educational establishments. At the same time, in the modern educational system, more and more decisive criticism is admitted. Today, almost all people are aware of their personal rights and freedoms. At all the stages of education, they may count on high-quality training. For instance, according to Fantuzzo, “unfair competition raises an objection to educational inequality for which universities can be held responsible” (584). These outcomes reflect the fact that society is not ready to encourage bias and intends to fight its manifestations.

The implementation of the methods of ensuring equality in education is impossible without state regulation in this area. Admission to educational institutions cannot be based on the principles of payment and financial security of individual students. Shields highlights that it is “unfair for some group in society to have life-long access to excellent, well-funded educational institutions” (450). Therefore, appropriate targeted work should support the policy of countering inequality that society does not want to tolerate. The effective measures of creating appropriate conditions for people to have the right to free enrollment in the desired educational establishments will strengthen the position of power and guarantee support. Therefore, the involvement of different stakeholders is necessary in order to help eliminate this social problem and establish a stable and fair mode of providing educational services to the population.

The significance of equality in education is due to the natural development of society and the transition to a civilized order, where any manifestations of bias for various reasons are unacceptable. The intolerance of unfair admission may be explained by the fact that today, most people are aware of personal rights and freedoms. Such a criterion as material well-being cannot be considered an objective reason for preference in favor of this or that student. The participation of government agencies in resolving this issue is mandatory, and involving stakeholders may help to improve the current situation.

Fantuzzo, John. “Admitting a Sense of Superiority: Aggrandized Higher Education Status as an Objection to Educational Inequality.” Studies in Philosophy and Education , vol. 37, no. 6, 2018, pp. 579–93.

McWhirter, Ellen Hawley, et al. “Discrimination and Other Education Barriers, School Connectedness, and Thoughts of Dropping out Among Latina/o Students.” Journal of Career Development , vol. 45, no. 4, 2018, pp. 330–44.

Pomeroy, David. “Educational Equity Policy as Human Taxonomy: Who Do We Compare and Why Does It Matter?” Critical Studies in Education , 2018, pp. 1–16.

Shields, Liam. “Private School, College Admissions and the Value of Education.” Journal of Applied Philosophy , vol. 35, no. 2, 2018, pp. 448–61.

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May 9, 2024

Investigation Finds Texas School District Violated Civil Rights After Years Of Racial Discrimination Against Black Students 

The U.S. Department of Education wants to negotiate with the Carroll Independent School District (CISD) after four students filed civil rights complaints, prompting lawyers to suggest the agency pushed the allegations aside. 

The U.S. Department of Education wants to negotiate with the Carroll Independent School District (CISD) after four students filed civil rights complaints, prompting lawyers to suggest the agency pushed the allegations aside . 

In a letter to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) defending the students, the agency’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) department revealed they have contacted the district in Southlake, Texas, to begin negotiating a resolution agreement in the four complaints, giving them 90 days. All four students have either graduated or left the district after being subjected to a number of racist and homophobic slurs and comments while attending a Carroll school. 

One student admitted to being the victim of retaliation after reporting racial harassment to school administrators, while another had suicidal thoughts after being repeatedly mocked by fellow students over his sexual orientation. 

His family claims the district did nothing to address the bullying. 

According to the letter, members of Cultural & Racial Equity for Every Dragon (CREED) and the Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition (SARC) are concerned about the emotional and mental damage students sustained by CISD’s hostile environment . Both groups, one consisting of Black parents and the other of current and former students with first-hand experience, want the district to be held accountable. “I think it’s good Carroll may be pushed to finally do something for its students of color,” Terrance Jones, a complainant, said. 

“Just wish it happened while I was there.” 

One Black mother, Angela Jones, has been advocating for years, hoping that changes will be established within the district, adding protections for minority students. As the mother of a former student who filed a complaint, she was ridiculed by board members and conservative parents who accused her and fellow advocates of pushing a far-left political agenda into classrooms. “They’re saying to the district, ‘You didn’t do it on your own, so we’re going to come in and make some recommendations for you to do it differently,’” Jones said. 

“I hope they’ll take it seriously and re-evaluate and negotiate.”

Allegations began in 2018 after a video went viral showing white high school students shouting the N-word, forcing dozens of Carroll parents and students to come forward to tell their stories of lingering discrimination. After the controversy began, the school board formulated a committee of volunteers, including Jones, to come up with strategies to address the problem, resulting in the Cultural Competence Action Plan. 

The plan pushed for mandatory diversity training for teachers and students, along with adding changes to the student handbook with a focus on banning harassment on the basis of race, gender, and sexual orientation, among other changes. 

After the plan was implemented in 2020, conservative parents and activists formed a political action committee called Southlake Families PAC, promising to defeat the diversity plan and elevate “Judeo-Christian values” in the school district . The group received hundreds of thousands of dollars to support conservative candidates, as well as launched ads that attacked opponents and accused them of being radical leftists. 

The support allowed them to win majority control of the Carroll school board in November 2021. 

LDF Assistant Counsel Katrina Feldkamp said the group “is pleased” that the agency is recognizing the civil rights violations within Carroll ISD schools and hopes that changes will finally come. “After three long years, we are pleased to see that OCR has recognized the longstanding civil rights violations in Carroll ISD schools. Black, brown, and LGBTQIA+ students deserve schools that not only prevent and respond to harassment but that create a safe and supportive environment for all students,” Feldkamp said. 

“As the 90-day resolution negotiation period begins, we are hopeful that CISD and OCR will work to adopt the policy changes that CREED, SARC, and Southlake families have demanded for years.”

• Carroll Independent School District
• Department of Education
• racial discrimination lawsuit

Feds find civil rights violations in Southlake, Texas, schools, students' lawyers say

The U.S. Department of Education is seeking to negotiate with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, over four students’ civil rights complaints — which three education law experts say signals that the department has substantiated the students’ allegations of racist and anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

The Education Department’s civil rights enforcement arm described the next steps in its investigation in a letter Monday to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which represents the students. The development comes three years after the civil rights organization filed federal complaints on behalf of students who said Carroll officials failed to protect them from harassment.

The four students, all of whom have either graduated or left the district, reported to the Education Department that they had been subjected to a barrage of racist and homophobic slurs and comments during their years at Carroll. One student said he suffered retaliation after reporting racial harassment to administrators. Another said he contemplated suicide after classmates repeatedly mocked him for his sexual orientation; his family said the district failed to address the bullying.

On Monday, the Education Department notified the NAACP Legal Defense Fund that it had contacted Carroll district officials to begin negotiating a resolution agreement in the four complaints — a step the agency takes only after finding that students’ civil rights have been violated, said Katrina Feldkamp, an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

The Southlake school system — which became the focus of national headlines in 2021 after conservative parents rejected a sweeping plan aimed at preventing discrimination — will now have 90 days to reach an agreement with the Education Department on steps it will take to address problems identified in the student complaints, experts said.

Angela Jones, a Black mother of a former Carroll student who was among those who complained to the Education Department, said she spent years advocating for changes to protect minority students in the affluent North Texas school district. But she was rebuffed by school board members and conservative parents who accused her and others of trying to force a far-left political ideology into classrooms. Jones said she and her family felt validated by the Education Department’s finding.

“They’re saying to the district, ‘You didn’t do it on your own, so we’re going to come in and make some recommendations for you to do it differently,’” Jones said. “I hope they’ll take it seriously, and re-evaluate and negotiate.”

A spokesperson for the Education Department said the agency doesn’t comment on pending cases. Carroll Superintendent Lane Ledbetter and the school board’s president, Cam Bryan, did not respond to messages requesting comment.

The local debate over how to address racism in Carroll schools became a national symbol of the battles over race, gender and sexuality that have swept the country and was featured in the 2021 NBC News podcast series “Southlake.”

The town’s fight began in 2018, after a viral video of white high school students chanting the N-word spurred dozens of Carroll parents and students to come forward with stories of discrimination. After the outcry, the school board appointed a committee of volunteers, including Jones, to come up with strategies to address the problem. The result of their work, the Cultural Competence Action Plan, called for mandatory diversity training for teachers and students and changes to the student handbook explicitly prohibiting harassment on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation, among other changes. Then came the backlash. 

After the plan was released in the summer of 2020, conservative parents and activists — outraged at what they depicted as anti-white and anti-American indoctrination — formed a political action committee called Southlake Families PAC, which promised to defeat the diversity plan and elevate “Judeo-Christian values” in the school district. They raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support a slate of hard-line conservative candidates, launched attack ads accusing their opponents of being radical leftists and, in November 2021, won majority control of the Carroll school board.

Two weeks later, the Education Department opened its initial investigations into student complaints. The total number of civil right investigations at the district would eventually grow to eight. The status of the other four open cases is unclear.

The probes set the stage for a potential conflict between local voters who opposed the diversity plan and federal officials tasked with enforcing federal civil rights laws. Now that the Education Department has initiated the process to negotiate a resolution with the district in four of the complaints, the federal agency could end up requiring Carroll to implement some of the same types of diversity and inclusion programs that Southlake voters have rejected in landslide elections in recent years.

In a video address to the community after the investigations were announced in 2021, Ledbetter, Carroll’s superintendent, said the district would “absolutely comply” if the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) ordered changes. But some local activists have called on the district to fight back against what they see as federal overreach. They have spread unsubstantiated theories that the federal investigation was launched in retaliation against conservatives opposed to critical race theory.

U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, a Republican whose district includes Southlake, wrote a letter in November 2021 to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, co-signed by Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas, expressing fears that the Biden administration was “weaponizing federal resources to intimidate parents who disagree with the policies of this administration.”

In a statement four months later, an Education Department spokesperson said the agency’s work is “in no way retaliatory and OCR serves as a neutral fact-finder with any complaint.”

In the years since gaining control of the school board, members backed by Southlake Families PAC have made changes that diversity advocates say have made the district less inclusive. The board voted in 2022 to eliminate language explicitly prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual orientation and religion from the student handbook. And this week, the board adopted a resolution opposing the Biden administration’s decision to expand Title IX protections to LGBTQ students.

Ledbetter and members of the school board did not respond to a question from NBC News about whether it planned to work with the Education Department to reach a voluntary agreement.

W. Scott Lewis, managing partner at TNG, a consulting firm that advises school districts on complying with federal civil rights laws, said that if Carroll fails to reach a voluntary agreement with the Office for Civil Rights on how to address discrimination, the agency could impose changes that Carroll would have to abide by or risk losing federal funding or inviting an investigation by the Department of Justice.

Another approach that the district could take, Lewis said: Carroll could challenge the Education Department’s findings in court. “That’s not typically been very successful,” Lewis said.

Feldkamp, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorney, said her clients have asked the Education Department to require Carroll to implement many of the policies that were included in the Cultural Competence Action Plan, including mandatory diversity training for students and staff members.

“We need to send a message that we will not tolerate Black and brown students being pushed out of school, that it is unacceptable for racism and homophobia to win the day and that our public schools actually are supposed to be educational institutions where all students can feel supported and can thrive,” Feldkamp said.

On Wednesday, two community activist groups that had joined the civil rights complaints — the Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition and Cultural & Racial Equity for Every Dragon — sent a letter to Carroll officials calling on the district to agree “to remedies that will address the hostile environment” and “fulfill your responsibility to protect all students.”

Raven Rolle, a 23-year-old Black Carroll graduate and Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition member, said it shouldn’t have taken federal investigations for the district to listen to current and former students like herself who’ve shared stories of harassment. 

“Hopefully it sets a precedent for the kids that are currently there and kids who will be there years from now that these things will never happen again, and if they do, they’ll be dealt with appropriately,” Rolle said.

Mia Mariani, a 19-year-old college student living in Pittsburgh, was among the former Carroll students notified this week that the Education Department was taking action in response to her complaint of anti-LGBTQ bullying at Carroll. 

Mariani, whose story was detailed in the “Southlake” podcast, was bombarded by a torrent of vulgar messages from classmates on social media mocking her gender identity during a social studies class in the spring of 2022. After reporting the abuse, she secretly recorded her meeting with the principal, who argued that the boys who’d harassed her “were just wanting to debate” politics.  After her parents filed a complaint over the school’s handling of the situation, senior Carroll administrators investigated and concluded that Mariani’s complaint did “not satisfy the criteria necessary to constitute bullying.”

Now it appears the Department of Education has found evidence that her rights were violated.

Mariani said she was surprised when she got the news Monday. She’s worked to move on from her experiences in Southlake, she said, but hopes her case leads to changes for current and future students.

“Any change for them,” Mariani said, “is healing for me.”

Mike Hixenbaugh is a senior investigative reporter for NBC News, based in Maryland, and author of "They Came for the Schools." 

No, the House didn't pass bill to 'outlaw' the New Testament | Fact check

The claim: House passed bill to outlaw the New Testament

A May 3 Facebook post ( direct link , archive link ) shows a screenshot of a headline that claims federal lawmakers took steps to ban a religious text central to Christianity.

"US Congress House Passes Bill to Outlaw New Testament," the headline reads. Below it is text that reads, "The US House of Representatives passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act, but concerns arise over its potential restriction on the biblical portrayal of Jesus' crucifixion."

The post's caption reads, "Remember, they don't want to you (sic) reading the Bible!"

The post was shared more than 100 times in a week.

More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page

Our rating: False

The bill referenced in the post would not outlaw the New Testament, according to multiple legal experts. Instead, it would require the Department of Education to use a certain definition of antisemitism when it enforces federal anti-discrimination laws on college campuses.

Bill defines antisemitism in federal anti-discrimination law

In early May, the House approved legislation that, if enacted, would expand the definition of antisemitism that the Department of Education uses when it investigates discrimination against Jews on college campuses. It passed with some bipartisan support amid a wave of protests on college campuses over Israel's war in Gaza. The bill's fate in the Senate is uncertain, the Associated Press reported.

The legislation, called the Antisemitism Awareness Act , would apply the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance 's definition of antisemitism to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , which prohibits discrimination based on "race, color and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance." That includes all colleges and universities that receive federal funds.

In a post on X , formerly Twitter, Florida Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said before the vote she wouldn't support the legislation, claiming it "could convict Christians of antisemitism for believing the Gospel that Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jews." Similarly, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said in an X post that “the Gospel itself would meet the definition of antisemitism under the terms of the bill.”

Fact check : House condemned pro-Palestinian slogan in resolution, did not ban it

But Richard Painter , a University of Minnesota law professor, told USA TODAY that the legislation "doesn't outlaw the New Testament at all," nor would it ban the religious text from federally funded institutions.

"You're not banning something, you're conditioning federal funds on something," Painter said. "That's different than banning it."

While certain passages of the New Testament could potentially be interpreted in ways that fit the bill's definition of antisemitism, "that doesn't mean the New Testament itself would meet the definition of antisemitism," Painter said.

Jason Mazzone , a law professor at the University of Illinois, said there is no plausible way to interpret the legislation as banning the New Testament, even in a higher education setting.

"Title VI has never been understood to require schools and other recipients of federal funding to remove or prohibit from campus books on the basis that they may contain offensive material," Mazzone said. "Nothing in the Antisemitism Awareness Act newly imposes such a requirement. And if it did, it would be a clear violation of the First Amendment."

There is only one reference to the New Testament in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism – in this example : "Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis."

The Anti-Defamation League and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum both consider the claim that Jews killed Jesus to be an antisemitic myth used to justify violence against Jews for centuries. In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI wrote that there is no basis in scripture to support the claim that Jewish people as a whole were collectively responsible for Jesus' death, CBS News reported .

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Our fact-check sources:

• Richard Painter , May 8, Phone interview with USA TODAY
• Jason Mazzone , May 9, Email exchange with USA TODAY
• Associated Press, May 1, House passes bill to expand definition of antisemitism amid growing campus protests over Gaza war
• The New York Times, May 2, Bill to Combat Antisemitism on Campuses Prompts Backlash From the Right
• Congress.gov, accessed May 10, H.R.6090 - Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023
• International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, accessed May 10, Working definition of antisemitism
• Justice Department, accessed May 10, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here .

USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta .

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Ph.D. student recognized for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts

Corinne Hobbs, a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Kinesiology , is the recipient of the MSU Council of Graduate Students (COGS) Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Award . The award — now in its second year — recognizes graduate-level Spartans who exemplify and actively promote DEI by addressing, challenging or dismantling discrimination, sexism, racism and prejudice within their program, unit or department.

In September 2023, Hobbs formed a podcast listening group for members of the Kinesiology Graduate Student Organization (KGSO) focused on education history and DEI topics in the context of sports. Over the course of the academic year, about half of the graduate students in the department listened to episodes from various DEI-centric podcasts and engaged in meaningful discussions at group meetings.

One podcast highlighted by the group, New York Times’ 1619 Project, explores how slavery has shaped culture in the United States today.

“It sparked a really interesting and honest dialogue in our group,” said Hobbs, who noted the podcast club was nice break from reading and writing for KGSO members. In previous years, KGSO has hosted book clubs. Hobbs was nominated by KGSO President and 2024 Ph.D. graduate Megan Loftin.

Another podcast, Demystifying Diversity, spotlighted issues like race, gender, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status in relation to participation in sports environments.

“We brought people together to talk about really serious issues and it was cool that they truly represented a global community and came together,” said Hobbs.

A passion for people

Hobbs’ scholarly interests lie in the psychosocial aspects of sports, particularly examining the effectiveness of pre-game speeches and how to measure team culture and climate. After completing her master’s degree at Miami University in Ohio, she was inspired to become a Spartan and work with her now advisor, Professor Nicholas Myers – a renowned scholar in the field of sports psychology.

“Working with Corinne has been a truly rewarding experience. Her natural curiosity and eagerness to engage with as many learning and serving possibilities as possible, are infectious,” said Myers. “Corinne embodies the best current qualities, and future aspirations of our great land-grant institution.”  

Hobbs hopes to tackle real-world issues in her career, with a primary focus on individual well-being.

“I want to make sure that my research has a direct impact on the population I’m researching,” she said. “In terms of DEI, it means making sure my research has a holistic, person-centered approach.”

Other news: Genoese receives National Doctoral Scholar Award honorable mention