Katharine Meeks urges affluent parents to send their children to diverse public schools. She writes here of going to school in Wake County, North Carolina, which had a policy of desegregated schools. She entered the lottery to attend a magnet school, but was not accepted. She attended a regular public school and she is glad. The benefits of such schools, she writes, are enormous.
When she was in school, no school was allowed to have more than 40% of children who were eligible for free or reduced lunch, the federal standard for poverty/low income. Students were bused to maintain the balance of diversity.
She writes:
I’m glad I never got into the magnet schools because now I can share my experiences with people who might be nervous to send their children to schools with poor children. People who bought homes in areas with a socioeconomic buffer. People who worry that bus rides will be too long or think that the district will be unstable.
I attended my assigned school from kindergarten through twelfth grade in a district that bussed students to ensure no school exceeded 40 percentd free and reduced lunch. In other words, the school board mandated each school be socioeconomically representative of the larger district. Some of the schools I attended were closest to my home and some weren’t.
At each school, I received a high quality education. My teachers fanned the flames of my natural curiosity. In kindergarten, I was asked to show off my reading prowess on the morning news. In middle school, I competed as a “Mathlete.” In high school, I aced every single math problem on the SAT. From kindergarten through twelfth grade I received a top-notch, enriching arts education complete with field trips and community partnerships. I never worried about my safety.
I graduated among the top of my class. I got into every college I applied to and was offered several scholarships. I was more than well prepared for college, and continued to receive grants and scholarships once I was there. I exhibit my artwork and publish my writing. To top it all off, I have my dream job.
She cites studies that demonstrate the value of an integrated education, to all students. The benefits are universal. Learning in a diverse environment not only teaches critical thinking skills but prepares students to live in a diverse world.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So I agree and disagree a little bit with this post. First, magnet programs such as IB can offer top notch education – and often times they are placed in schools that are high minority in part to help integrate the school.
Second – yes, I completely agree about attending diverse schools. However, sometimes this can lead to lots of tensions. I live in area that is rather diverse and I chose to have my 1st graders attend a school where they are the minority in terms of race and socio-economic class (60% are free and reduced lunch, less than 20% are Caucasian). That being said, the principal has often stated how when the school was title I they had more resources and could do more. Now, I think that this is a cop out excuse, but indirectly she is stating that when families like mine chose to come to her school, it brought down the overall FRL and thus the school lost Title I. Instead of embracing me as a parent that could offer a lot to the school, she sees the status quo of being mediocre as ok…
I think that this can lead to a quandary – yes, integration and gentrification of neighborhoods offer lots of pluses to all, but are there unintented consequences that happen?
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What is the percentage of low income students needed for Title I? My kid is in a school that is 65% low income, and it is Title 1.
I do agree with you about the tensions. Diversity leads to a lot of misunderstandings. I wish we had better training for the adults in the schools to deal with this rather than just punish kids or push things under the rug. A lot of the offensive comments are due to ignorance, rather than hatred, especially with younger kids – such as in our school where all Asian kids are called “Chinese” and asked if they eat dogs.
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Unfortunately, the policy described by Meeks here (the one ensuring that no schools have a F&R % of greater than 40) was dismantled by a school board elected in 2009 – an election in which 93% of voters stayed home.
While that board is all gone now, having all been voted out, the current board has yet to show the courage and resolve to reinstate what was a clearly successful and nationally enviable policy…because they fear losing reelection.
To paraphrase LBJ, what the hell’s a school board for? Governing out of fear never yields the best results for the community and its citizens.
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But the autocratic, for profit at any price corporate/CEO/billionaire war being waged on community based, democratic, transparent, non profit public education doesn’t want OUR children to be critical thinkers and problem solvers. The disruptors of democracy that worship at the alter of avarice want OUR children to be obedient worker drones and in-debt addicted consumers paying high interest rates on student loans while continuing to run up even more credit card debt to survive.
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I don’t know but I think my children benefited from attending an (economically) diverse school. It’s really interesting to listen to my son and his friends talk about who has more money, stuff, etc. They’re so blunt about it. I feel like the matter-of-fact way they bat it back and forth is a much better way to talk about it than than the adult convention of pretending they all get the same things out of politeness or awkwardness. Some of this stuff is pretty raw- food stamps running out, cars that don’t run or no phone because they can’t buy the minutes card. Those things don’t happen to him.
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My son goes to a diverse, high quality public school that is roughly 30% each Black, Latino, and Asian, and 10% white. 70% of the kids are eligible for free or reduced price lunch. It is the most sought-after middle school in the city. Our son goes there because that is where his special education program is located, and we couldn’t be happier. He is having a great school experience.
I am a teacher in the same district, and I’m very outspoken about common enrollment, charter schools, etc. As a teacher I oppose them, but as a parent I understand that parents need to choose the option that they feel is best for their child.
It is the district’s responsibility to provide a safe, stable, high quality school in every neighborhood, so students’ parents don’t have to get on the freeway every morning in order to have their students attend a school that they feel good about.
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It sounds like the OP had a great experience, but it also sounds like she would have done well anywhere…”I graduated at the top of my class” pretty much cancels out the bragging about acing every math question on the SAT or getting into every college she applied to. I mean, graduating “at the top” means that other kids ‘below’ her had a different experience.
I live in a very competitive district with a high socioeconomic rating, and some Asian parents in the district have been known to rent apartments in towns on our border that are have a much lower socioeconomic mix, so that they can send their kid to the HS in that town. NOT because the ‘experience’ is so valuable, but because their kid stands a much better chance of being valedictorian.
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I tend to see this main post as more of some self-congratulatory celebration than a reflection of reality for most students. Too many students struggle and are ignored. How often we see those that have “made it” become incapable of understanding why other families face insurmountable odds. I lost count of the number of business people and conservatives I talk to who forgot the advantages they had that others did not, and insist they achieved success on their own. They talk with dripping disdain for poor, disabled, ill, and people who are just down on their luck.
The younger me was an idiot and clueless. My greatest regret now is that I haven’t treated other people nicer.
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I think part of Katharine Meeks’ point is that sending a white middle class child to a school with high numbers of low income and/or “minority” students does not mean sacrificing their education or their future.
I have had this conversation with many parents who were worried they may be making a political statement at the expense of their kids’ education. My argument is that their middle class children will likely do quite fine no matter where they go to school but they will benefit from the school’s diversity – in ways they cannot learn from their parents – and the school community will benefit from their contribution to a diverse environment.
It is the parents of low income children and children of color who have the most to be concerned about in their choice of school, if they have a choice.
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For each parent, maybe the question will be this: Which is more important, high test scores or socially rounded, diversity curious children?
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I just do not see that benefit. Racial diversity is a good experience, but the problem seems to be more along the lines of socio-economic conflict. Families struggling with job loss or other challenges are not in isolation. The children being those problems into the schools as anger, violence, disruptions, and poor classroom behaviors. At the other extreme, the affluenza kids seem to lack boundaries or the ability to see beyond privilege. If your kid isn’t wearing the right clothes, driving their own car, or vacationing twice a year, then these families behave as elitists. It is a hyper-competitive, Trump-ish losers and winners attitude.
We strived hard to instill tolerance, respect, decency, and kindness in our kids. Sadly, we were the minority. I gave up after we endured too much anti-social and just plain mean behavior from other students and their enabling parents. I just figured America had lost its mind and soul and enrolled my kids in a magnet type school.
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Ours was mixed experience. The main school has increasing racial and socio-economic tensions, often an intersection of groups (poor whites, middle class African-American, etc.). The school has degraded and discipline has become a problem with more fights, drugs, and now weapons. We’ve even had parents involved in physical conflicts. This is a “nice” suburban school. Kids are heavily tracked so if you aren’t labeled “gifted”, you tend to get the ineffective teachers. LGBT students are constantly targeted. My daughters tired of the racial name calling, intolerance from all groups, groping, and increased safety risks. So a magnet school run by experienced teachers with an alternative model was a benefit.
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There are different types of magnet schools. My niece attends a magnet school for the arts. She’s 16 years old and is already selling paintings from showings at the school. In this case, “magnet school” is more of a peculiar type of vo-tech than some sort of whitewash. Her school is very diverse.
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It seems to me that magnet programs in some parts of the country have turned their original purpose on its head. The magnets in Los Angeles were created to voluntarily integrate schools. The performing arts magnet that my children attended for middle school did not require auditions, so children of various talents and abilities attend. Also, children from all over the school district attend, making it far more diverse than many schools which draw enrollment from a small neighborhood. As we know, housing patterns limit racial diversity. So, here, magnets alleviate that.
Of course, if the magnets are only meant to attract the brightest or most talented students, then they create a challenge and strain on the remaining schools. How can diversity and equity be addressed in those situations?
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Unfortunately, Wake County no longer has a desegregation policy that ensures diversity, and its schools are rapidly segregating. This policy change occurred not because of charter or magnet schools or billionaires or ALEC, but because of a vote of the democratically elected school board. Even a newly composed, majority-Democrat board has declined to reinstate the policy, knowing that there will be political consequences for doing so.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article31101236.html
It’s a reminder that the zoned district school is far and away the primary driver of school segregation in the US, not “choice,” and that this segregation is fully intentional, occurring not as an effect of “market forces,” but because of the preferences of whites, with the backing of private and public institutions. It’s no more likely to go away than de jure segregation was likely to go away before Brown.
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Thank you, Katherine Meeks….
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Note that this is in tension with the idea that families should have the right to choose to send their children to their neighborhood school.
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Many years ago I attended an urban magnet school, which was integrated. My local school was a school full of angry poor and working class students, and the school was known for being dangerous. I got a good education at the magnet school, but I did not like the snobby attitude of some of the administrators. My cousin attended the local school, was attacked a few times, and transferred to the technical “secretarial” school to save her skin. My cousin became a secretary, and I became a teacher. If all schools were equal, magnet schools would lose some of their appeal.
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I went to one of the ultimate magnet schools, Stuyvesant HS in NYC. It was a terrific, rigorous experience, but in retrospect I have some qualms. I wonder if gifted/accelerated kids in general are more benefited from a mixed setting. Not that there shouldn’t be classes for them, but I think the community on the whole benefits from everyone being there. I took a subway to Manhattan every day, but it would have been nice too if the high school across the street weren’t so rough and had great programs for kids like me.
I live in a very small city with a diverse population. We have a school system spurned by the middle class parents, which is sad. The education is pretty good, and the system does want to improve. They established an accelerated program, partially at the urging of myself and my wife. I have to say, the school performances in my district are spectacular. The beautiful rainbow of faces have an energy that’s hard to match. I teach in a pretty wealthy district, and our concerts never have the same urgency or desire to express oneself. They make me very proud.
I’m proud that my kids go to the neighborhood school, and we do our part to make sure it serves them. Sometimes districts need a push to serves all learners, including the advanced ones, but that needs to happen. Impoverished kids are advanced learners too, and they might need help from less struggling families to create these programs.
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I had a great career in a diverse public school district. I taught poor ELLs, but two thirds of the district was middle class. Some students got into ivy league and very fine colleges. Others opted for state schools, or even community college. My ELLs benefited tremendously from the acceptance, support and opportunities in this district. Most of the former ELLs got into college or community college. We need more school districts like this one.
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Unfortunately, the policy described by Meeks here (the one ensuring that no schools have a F&R % of greater than 40) was dismantled by a school board elected in 2009 – an election in which 93% of voters stayed home.
While that board is all gone now, having all been voted out, the current board has yet to show the courage and resolve to reinstate what was a clearly successful and nationally enviable policy…because they fear losing reelection. Governing out of fear is not in the best interests of students and their communities – this is yet another example.
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