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Will someone help me understand what “equity of access” really means? What about equity of outcomes? or equity of admissions? I am really troubled that Nadelstern, and everyone else at Tweed, hides behind this civil rights rhetoric that is just meaningless. Yes this is just the tip of the iceberg, but when schools like Beacon, which have historically been diverse, lose their commitment to staying that way we all need to be concerned. Bravo to the teenagers who are trying to do something about this. Knowing some of the players at Beacon, I feel confident that the administration will join them in these efforts (i really hope so!).

Two slightly different but related notes:
Is there equity of access when a test is used on 4 and 5 year olds that is incapable of recognizing the vast gifts and talents of students across communities. Until we find a measure that finds the top 5% in each group (or closer to it) the test is certainly not creating equity of access.

And what is happening to Brooklyn Tech? A school that for so long was very diverse?
Thanks for indulging me….

I commend the Beacon students for speaking up. I think it is one more troubling note in a school system that seems determined to continue segregating the races and classes. It cuts both ways, too: there are elite schools that seem only to attract minority children, i.e. Philippa Schuyler and Brooklyn Latin. Why is this? The system of districts seems to encourage this racial segregation (although I know that the above two schools have citywide admissions). I have been following the story of Brooklyn’s PS 133, in which the SCA will be razing an old school to construct a new one building, which will include a school in Dist. 13, likely to be largely minority and poor (if the zoning is as I understand it), and a school in Dist. 15, which probably will be whiter and more affluent. It seems ludicrous to construct two separate schools that will likely be viewed as haves and have nots. Why not combine them, and allow the resources that the wealthy parents can command to benefit all the kids who go there from both districts. Similarly, the community debate about PS 20 on the Times Local blog has been ugly and centered around race, as it has become evident that most middle (and upper) class parents in that school’s zone, who are likely to be white, send their children elsewhere.

I realize these schools are very different from Beacon, but I have been bothered for some time by what seems like a system of apartheid in the NYC schools. My own child attends a racially integrated elementary school, but no such thing seems to exist in Dist. 13 after 5th grade, and I suspect this is also true for many, many schools around the city.

When does Brown v Board of Ed reach NYC?

To be clear, I support “neighborhood schools,” especially for elementary schools. But I know of multiple instances where the predominantly white school and the predominantly minority school are within walking distance OF EACH OTHER.

I’m not ready to use the word “apartheid,” but certainly our ever-increasingly gentrified city needs to address de facto segregation in its school system. Morally and legally.

Kudos to the Beacon 15. Shine the light.

M.–

With new construction, it’s probably not the parents but the developer securing zoning for PS 8 (or typical desirable school) before the apartments are put on the market. I think all of DUMBO and Vinegar Hill are zoned for PS 8. I could be wrong, but I believe that some of the projects down there are zoned for it as well, but some are not.

I support neighborhood schools too which is why I don’t understand why P.S. 212 – Midtown West is not a zoned neighborhood school. Instead it is a choice school with kids coming from Westchester and other nearby Westchester suburbs as well as other places in the city.

kk: Not surprisingly, PS 321 is in Dist. 15; PS 282 is in Dist. 13. One of the early Bloomburg/Klein initiatives that I supported was the combining of districts into regions, which I’d hoped would dissolve some of the disparities of quality between schools in the the have and have-not districts. Initially, the signs were good, with staff mentoring between the successful and less successful schools and parents making commitments to neighborhood schools. Instead, the regions were dissolved, one of many decisions that has led me to think that the mayor and his chancellor shouldn’t be running the school system.

Dear Sara,

I hope that you are still reading this blog. I too am a white person from outside the NYC area (from a small rural area in PA, in fact). I too value and love much of the culture that I grew up in, and when I have a child, I hope to pass on some of that culture as well. However, the area I grew up in also taught me to fear and demean folks from outside our culture, and especially people of color (much like other white communities I have known), and those are “values” and aspects of the culture that I try to unlearn and oppose every day and hope to teach any children of my own how to oppose.

Let me tell you a little more about myself: my parents (fairly liberal folks) sent me to a school with other kids who are the exact opposite of what my parents espoused (i.e. explicitly racist). I managed to resist learning that expect of our culture (at least mostly), and I believe that when given good reason and plenty of love, youth can avoid learning other destructive habits / ideas. Furthermore, you assert that the majority of Black and Latino youths are engaged in gangs, wear their clothes in one certain style, curse in every sentence and generally throw their futures in the garbage can. By any evidence I can possibly think of, from my own experiences with New York City youth to sociological studies of youth cultures, educational or even criminal justice statistics, this characterization of the majority of Black and Latino youth is profoundly inaccurate. The stereotypes that you refer to as applying to your students trouble me deeply, and remind me very strongly of the racism that I grew up around, a virulent racism that supported active and explicit white-supremacist groups like the Klan. Trying to speak about racism with folks growing up, I learned quickly that if we are convinced of something, we can often convince ourselves — against all any evidence — that our beliefs are right. I sincerely hope that you diligently interrogate the some of your own beliefs, as I have had to interrogate my own.

All of us must be accountable for the impacts our lives have on others, and we must also acknowledge that such dehumanizing and degrading stereotypes inevitably find their expression in our behavior with people of color, often with painfully damaging results. I have yet to meet a white person who has never held these stereotypes to one degree or another (myself included), but I believe it is our responsibility to commit ourselves to unlearning them and correcting our destructive ways of interacting with the world. This goes for the explicit white-supremacists in my hometown, but it also goes for whites in New York like yourself and myself.

Unfortunately, these demeaning stereotypes, rooted in fear of loosing our own status as privileged whites in a racist society, are continually reinforced by corporate-controlled media all around us, even in New York. It can be difficult to unlearn them, but if we fail to do so we are contributing to at least two processes: 1) the racist oppression of people of color and, 2) the erasure of what I believe are the most beautiful parts of various white cultures (like much my own Scotch-Irish heritage), replacing it with increasingly concentrated hatred and violence. As white folks, it is our responsibility to find a better way to live.

Sincerely,
NF
ps — I would be happy to continue this conversation privately via email if you would like to (anon903@gmail.com)

Finding ways to promote racial diversity in the New York City public system is not a priority of the Department of Education and has not been identified as an area, in need of reform, by the Bloomberg/Klein administration, even though black and Latino students now comprise the majority of students attending NYC public schools. About 83% of these students live in inner-city districts that are at or below poverty level and attend ‘high needs’ neighbor schools where the levels of academic achievement are low. In addition to making sure that these schools receive adequate funding, making student populations more racially diverse can positively affect student academic performance. A New York Times article, by Emily Bazelon, showed that a district in Wake County, North Carolina was able to raise the academic achievement levels of black students by “sending students to schools based on the income level of the geographic zone they lived in”. In 1995, less than half of the black students in Wake County tested grade level on state reading tests; by last year that rate doubled to 82.5 percent. This particular strategy may not work in NYC schools because of the large numbers of blacks and Latinos in attendance; however, it does provides an example of what can be achieved when government officials make serious efforts to achieve educational equity through racial diversity.
Black and Latino academic achievement is not the only reason why racial diversity should be pursued .The New York City public school system was created to imbue students with values of good citizenship, as well as provide them with a decent education. Integrated schools provide a healthier social and learning environment because exposure to other people of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds breaks down stereotypes; promote tolerance and common understanding. Black and Latinos are certainly not the only beneficiaries.
Desegregation of student populations, alone does not remedy the problem. The entire school system needs to be desegregated. Currently, non-white teachers make up a small minority of NYC public school teachers. Black teachers comprise only about 20% of teaching staff and black men, only 2%. Ways must be found to bring expand parity among qualified teaching staff so that they too reflect the level of racial and ethnic diversity in schools. Most students, whether from segregated or integrated schools, encounter few non-white teachers throughout their entire academic experience. It must be acknowledged that people of color are equally qualified to have a role in this process and given equal access.
College graduate education programs also need to reflect a greater degree of racial and ethnic diversity. As it stands, most of these programs are overwhelmingly white. Reasons for this need to be examined and efforts made to recruit more non-white students. Since many non-white students are graduates of NYC public schools and reside in inner-city communities, their input must be valued in any discourse that involves overcoming educational challenges in their communities.
According to Eleanor Roosevelt: “Whether we send our children to private school or public school we should take a constant interest in all educational institutions and remember that on the public school largely depends the success or the failure of our great experiment in government “by the people, for the people.” Desegregation of our public school system; therefore, should be viewed as a necessary educational reform that should be pursued, in order to nurture and sustain rich, racial and culturally diverse environments, from which we all can benefit.