In NYC Schools, What Integration Can -- and Can't -- Accomplish
Urban Matters: In Unequal Lessons, your new book about New York City schools, you distinguish between diversity and integration. Why?
Alexandra Freidus: Diversity is used to describe an incredibly wide range of school characteristics, policies, and practices. For example, sometimes when people talk about “diverse schools,” they mean schools that enroll primarily students of color. But sometimes they mean schools with a more multiracial student body or schools with student demographics that reflect the local communities. At other times, it’s a way of signaling a school’s multicultural values or a very broad idea of “inclusion.” In Unequal Lessons, I argue that part of the term’s power lies in its flexibility – it can be understood in any number of ways, which allows people to vaguely talk about difference without directly addressing inequality.
Integration goes beyond desegregation efforts that “mix” students of different races in schools; it also focuses on what happens to kids once they get through the schoolhouse door. Often, schools using diversity-based approaches focus on treating all students “the same,” but the fact is that kids don’t come into schools with the same needs or experiences. Schools working towards integration strive to close opportunity gaps between children, often by using their resources to fully recognize kids’ value and meet their needs.
UM: While whites make up more than 30 percent of New York City residents, only about 15 percent of public school students are white. You look askance at school administrators for overly focusing on recruiting white families. But given their underrepresentation in schools, why shouldn’t that be a priority? Won’t it benefit schools with flagging enrollment and also take private school tuition costs off family budgets?
Freidus: There are clear benefits to increasing enrollment at public schools, which can depend on economies of scale to deliver robust educational programs. And I am a huge fan of all families sending their children to public schools!
What concerns me is the implicit – and sometimes explicit – expectation that because white students are underrepresented in public schools, administrators should make decisions with the priorities and demands of white families in mind.
When we expect school leaders to spend an hour a week giving school tours to privileged families, we take them away from other tasks that are more central to their work such as coaching a teacher, observing a class, or selecting new instructional materials. When district leaders prioritize facilities improvements at schools that enroll more white students, they are redirecting resources that might be needed at other schools. And if school staff often feel pressure to keep white families happy, they might offer special programs that privileged families prefer, give white children additional time and attention, or prioritize them in allocated support services.
I observed all of these trends in the six years I spent collecting data for Unequal Lessons. When I shared what I saw with educators who work very hard to serve students, they were often unaware of and dismayed by this pattern. However, these are the logical outcome of treating white families as special customers, rather than co-equal members in a school community.
UM: A lot of research finds that attending economically and socially diverse schools improves educational and social outcomes for the students involved. Yet in Unequal Lessons, you write that diversity has harms as well as benefits, and can actually “reinscribe” existing inequalities. What do you mean by that, and how does that square with the benefits of diversity others have found?
Freidus: This can be tricky, so I’m glad you asked. Research does show that integration can do some important things, including offering opportunities for students to learn from and make friends with kids from very different backgrounds. Integration can also help redistribute educational resources – as I noted, racially and socioeconomically diverse schools are more likely to receive additional funds and facilities upgrades than schools serving exclusively low-income children or children of color.
However, these resources come with a cost. A substantial body of research shows that Black and Latine students are frequently marginalized and vulnerable in schools that call themselves “integrated.” My research confirmed that when educators give white children special attention, their time and support are diverted away from the Black or Latine children who might otherwise have received them. These are real trade-offs.
Bigger picture, there are also costs in terms of student learning. When students witness these inequalities, they can internalize messages about white kids being “better” or “smarter” or somehow more deserving. This is damaging to all students. Students of color may also lose access to protective relationships and supportive curricula that might be offered in less diverse spaces.
UM: Go back to 2016. Of students bound for New York City’s elite “specialized” high schools, fewer than nine per cent were Black and Latino. Mayor Bill de Blasio was prompted to propose (eventually unavailing) reforms to the schools’ admissions process. But just a few weeks ago, when the racial profile of selective school admissions for this school year was reported to be less than 10 percent, the result was a one-day story in the Times and little more.
Have we just become inured to such dramatic racial disparities? If so, why?
Freidus: I actually don’t think we’ve become inured to racial inequality over the past 10 years. Both the historical record and decades of educational research show that the United States educational system is doing precisely what it was designed to do: first and foremost, serve white students. We have normalized these patterns for a very long time. That’s why the statistics about admissions to specialized high schools may shock us, but they don’t surprise us. The unusual moment was actually 2016, rather than the present day.
Why did people talk so much about school segregation at that point in time, when they don’t now? First, the UCLA Civil Rights Project published a report in 2014 that called New York City the most segregated system in the nation. This paved the way for advocates to push the de Blasio administration to take action (which it did quite halfheartedly, after years of pressure). But by 2021, there was not only a new mayoral administration with very different politics, but also an entirely new crisis: school closures due to Covid-19. This emergency understandably consumed everyone’s attention – and then the “return to normalcy” also meant a return to the status quo of segregated schools.
UM: Final question. New Yorkers are about to elect (or re-elect) our mayor. What should the election winner do to reduce educational inequality in public schools?
Freidus: I hope the election brings some important changes to public schools. We don’t have to take an either/or approach. We can simultaneously promote school integration and support schools in nurturing truly inclusive educational communities.
To address school segregation, the city can set targeted goals for each of the 32 local community school districts based on local demographics, require districts to partner with constituents in developing integration plans, and pilot policies that reduce school segregation, such as eliminating elementary school gifted and talented programs and secondary school admissions screens.
To make sure schools are truly integrated – that is to say, that they treat all their students as equally important by recognizing their inherent humanity and worth – the city can support educators in nurturing protective relationships and using inclusive curricula that build on the strengths of their communities. These important efforts are not in any way dependent on student demographics. In fact, they might look different from school to school based on local neighborhoods.
Alexandra Freidus is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of Connecticut. Her book, Unequal Lessons: School Diversity and Educational Inequality in New York City, was published last month by New York University Press.
Photo by: insideschool.org