Report Finds Diversity Essential to High Quality Education

Over 50 years after the Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling, the nation's K-12 education system is becoming more segregated while the immigrant and minority population surges. In November 2005, the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, part of the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University, released "With All Deliberate Speed: Achievement, Citizenship, and Diversity in American Education,” a paper designed to reinvigorate the national conversation about the value and status of diversity in American schools and communities.

The Supreme Court's 1955 Brown II decision opened a loophole, with its call for using “all deliberate speed,” that allowed the movement towards equality across racial lines to stall. The report finds that communities today are frequently divided by race and income, and that America is ambivalent about integration – although we claim to support equality, we nevertheless are reluctant to fight for equal opportunity. The solution, it claims, does not lie in an old system of busing, but in coming to view diversity as a foundation for national strength and an important element in public education. Time and determination are required to create these changes, and the report calls upon today's youth, the generations that have grown up with a deep commitment to equality and diversity, to broaden and deepen racial and social justice in this country.

Changing Demographics

Five dynamics in current society may motivate Americans to improve education and promote diversity, the reports states, as a matter of national security and economic stability:

The U.S. will continue to become more diverse, and schools and communities must respond together to these trends.
The nation's Hispanic and Asian populations have grown at much faster rates than the whole population; the African-American population has remained stable, and the white population has shrunk.
Recent studies have shown that the vast majority of minority children are educated in low-achieving, poorly staffed, and crumbling schools.

Our nation's future economic success depends upon the very children we are not educating now.
In an increasingly competitive “flat world,” the U.S. must provide a quality education to all children, an education that will supply the nation with intellectual capital in a skilled, multilingual, and multicultural workforce.

In order to sustain our democracy, we must encourage good citizenship.
Integrated schools provide a place for children to interact with those from different ethnic/cultural backgrounds, preparing them to participate in a heterogeneous and complex society.

There is broad public support for supporting racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse learning environments.
A strong majority of Americans believe that integrated schools are better for kids and support voluntary, as opposed to government, initiatives to encourage diversity in education.

Our nation's growing diversity is one of the great, untapped strengths of our democracy and remains vital to our national security.
As the international community questions our world leadership and critically examines our society, we must show the world that we are a diverse but united people who believe strongly in the power of our democracy.

Lessons Learned

Since the Brown decision, the nation has learned several lessons that should guides its steps forward, the report says. America is challenged to recognize that this is both a test of our nation's commitment to equality, and an opportunity to adopt diversity as a strength in our citizenship, economy, and security. The problem of segregation and inequality must be presented to Americans in a new language that draws their attention to the larger range of diversity in today's population. The problem cannot be addressed in schools alone, however; communities must take ownership of schools and education, as well. Regional cooperation can also foster diversity by creating affordable housing opportunities.

Moving Forward

Given these circumstances, the paper puts forth three recommendations. First, the paper suggests that legal definitions of “high-quality education” should include increasing racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity and their benefits. The coming reauthorization of the “No Child Left Behind” Act provides the chance to promote a diverse education on a national level. Further, it recommends that state school funding suits incorporate language affirming diversity in their definitions of a quality education.

Second, the report suggests a number of best practices and concepts that help provide access to a high-quality education in as diverse learning environments as possible. As the primary focus of reading programs have been in elementary schools, more funding should be directed at adolescent literacy programs that would help older students failing in school. Greater representation of minority, low-income, English-learning students in Advanced Placement classes and Early College programs would help prepare them for a college education. Third, the success of all children is a responsibility, the report asserts, not just of schools, but also of their communities. Community-school partnerships involve parents, neighborhood organizations, and cultural institutions in a way that can promote diverse learning experiences outside of school. Public school choice, by expanding options for students, could enable schools to become more representative of American society as a whole.

Diversity is not the end goal, the paper admits; rather, the goal is a society, built on a high-quality education, that displays strong national unity and has a healthy economic and political future. It remains for the young people of today, the report concludes, to reject a status quo that implicitly accepts division and inequality and actively pursues equality, achievement, and diversity in education and in America.

The project was chaired by Richard Riley, former Secretary of Education, and included academics (like Amy Stuart Wells of Teachers College), advocacy groups (like the Public Education Network and the National Council of LaRaza), and business leaders.

Prepared by Katherine Lu, November 22, 2005