Debunking the Middle-class Myth: Why diverse schools are good for all kids

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Permalink Reply by Kim on February 14, 2009 at 8:59pm

I'm a teacher who has taught in both public and private schools, in both high and low performing schools and in high and low socio-economic areas. Based on this experience, I'd like to caution that high performing schools are not always those providing the best instruction. Some "high performing" schools score well on standardized tests because of the demographic they serve, not the quality of instruction going on in the classrooms. Children from higher socio-economic areas tend to come to school better prepared to learn and have much more support from home - key ingredients in academic achievement. And let's be real here, most ethnically - at least Hispanic and African American - diverse schools are also in the lowest socio-economic areas.

I am a better teacher now than I ever was in private school or "high performing" schools in good neighborhoods because I have to be to reach my students. My kiddos come from a neighborhood full of violence, chaos, illiteracy and with little English spoken in their homes. It takes all of my skill and continued effort to grow as a teacher to meet the needs of these students.

Additionally, test scores aren't always a good indicator of the quality of instruction - especially when the federal government (AYP) requires an ever-increasing percentage of students to be proficient or advanced each year, regardless of where those students began or how much they grew. Students who score very low in the beginning of the year may show tremendous growth of a grade level or more but not meet the proficiency level required by NCLB. The school is said to have "failed" this child and sanctions are set in place.

That being said, as much as I love my students and my school, I would think long and hard before bringing my own children to my school site with me. My heart breaks over what my many of my students endure in their homes and neighborhoods. They cannot help but bring that baggage to school with them. These children have seen and heard and participated in things that I would not want my children exposed to - even through conversation on the playground.

I have made many generalizations here, I realize. My goal is simply to add another perspective to the discussion based on my experience, not throw darts or pander to stereotypes.

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Permalink Reply by Eileen Kugler on February 15, 2009 at 10:04am

I'm the author quoted in the initial tweet. I'm glad my comments about diverse schools sparked this dialogue. It's important to know that I'm not a teacher or a researcher. I became such an advocate for diverse schools when both my kids went to one of the most diverse high schools in the country, in Northern Virginia. Kids are from wide-ranging economic levels, immigrants from nearly 90 countries, every religion you could imagine. The school was so enriched -- both ACADEMICALLY and socially -- that I became a very active parent. My background is journalism and communications, so I worked with the school administration on doing some grassroots outreach to help the community know what was really going on in the school, not what the myths are. Eventually, I was asked by a publisher to document it in a book and I talked with people from diverse schools all over the country to see if my experiences were unique. I kept hearing the same story -- teachers, students, and parents in well-run diverse schools all felt they were given this amazing gift, and they were frustrated that those outside the school just didn't get it.

Much of the discussion here seems to focus on an either-or situation: Do I send my child to an academically challenging "white bread" school or do I send my child to a diverse one that might have social benefits? From my experience, and what I consistently hear as I speak around the country, is that a well-run diverse school gives you both. I saw this with my own kids and then found out there is academic research to back it up. Kids from diverse schools are challenged to think more deeply, to question more, to recognize individual strengths, to respect differences, to work collaboratively in diverse teams. They learn from each other, and when you combine kids with different life experiences and different perspectives, you get an incredibly rich learning environment. Officials from Harvard, Smith, Dartmouth, and University of Virginia have all told me they prefer kids from diverse schools because they understand issues at a deeper level.

Sure kids from middle-class homes have a head start when they enter school. But some of the brightest, most insightful kids I know come from homes where the parents don't speak English as a first language or they don't have many financial benefits. Believe me, you want your kids sitting next to them in class.

Now that my own kids are in their 20's, the benefits to them are staggering. They know wisdom comes from all sorts of people, not just those with high-paying jobs (and boy do the headlines prove that lately!). They are comfortable in any situation, talking to anyone. They understand world news at a deep level. Their lives know no boundaries. They, like their friends from all different backgrounds, will tell you how grateful they are to have gone to a diverse school. In fact they say they were privileged (their word) to attend that school.

Each one of us just wants to be the best parent we can. And no one wants to sacrifice their child's education for some social experiment, including my husband and myself. If you have a diverse school nearby, talk to the principal, talk to the teachers, talk to parents whose kids go there. Then make a decision based on fact. A diverse school with a strong principal and good teachers is a gold mine. In fact, many of our best teachers love teaching in these schools. I hear from parents all the time who did their homework and learned first-hand the unique benefits of the diverse school nearby. And are they and their kids grateful they did.

Eileen Kugler (more stuff on my website at www.EmbraceDiverseSchools.com)

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Permalink Reply by Chrissy Jensen on February 16, 2009 at 4:03pm

I am speechless, I think everyone is tip-toeing around this subject, I really do. This is very difficult to discuss and not step on anyone's toes. No matter what or how you issue your opinion on something like this, you must expect that people will form there own opinion about it.

Honestly by asking if anybody else wanted to weigh in opened up a can of worms. I am honestly deeply offended by your assumptions that public housing projects would cause the curriculum to have to be designed for the majority (the kids from the housing projects), stating it in such a way that these children are less than.

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Permalink Reply by Kim on February 16, 2009 at 5:12pm

Christa 'Chrissy' Jensen said:

I am speechless, I think everyone is tip-toeing around this subject, I really do. This is very difficult to discuss and not step on anyone's toes. No matter what or how you issue your opinion on something like this, you must expect that people will form there own opinion about it.
Honestly by asking if anybody else wanted to weigh in opened up a can of worms. I am honestly deeply offended by your assumptions that public housing projects would cause the curriculum to have to be designed for the majority (the kids from the housing projects), stating it in such a way that these children are less than.

Chrissy,
You are so right about the can of worms, but not having the discussion would be worse than having one that is uncomfortable yet profitable. In no way do I come from the perspective that my students are "less than". I ache for each of them to reach their full potential and tell them everyday how valuable and capable they are. More than once I have cried over students who made poor choices and had to suffer hurtful consequences. I am a better teacher and a better person for the blessing of being in their company every day.

That being said, to think that every aspect of a school that draws its clientele from a socio-economically depressed area is not affected by the demographic it serves is naive. I see students from 8:04 - 12:23 and from 1:03 - 2:04. All but 30 minutes of that time MUST be spent on English Language Development (for those learning English), English Language Arts (ELA) and Math. The remaining 30 minutes of the day is available for history and science IF my students don't need remediation in "core" subjects. They almost always need continued work in ELA and Math. This is not true in schools that serve more affluent students (regardless of ethnicity). These schools, because they are usually not in Program Improvement, are not under the gun to improve scores and have more latitude in regard to curriculum and instructional time. These students have the benefit of history and science instruction and even art. And one must not forget field trips. Students from these types of schools often get to venture away from the school for enriching and curiosity exploding field trips. My students get one field trip a year - if we are lucky, and it must be taken after "The Test". It is not uncommon for students who exhibit GATE (Gifted and Talented) characteristics to be overlooked, under-identified and under-served in schools such as the one in which I teach. So much emphasis is placed on getting low-performing students to proficient or advanced that students who are already there are kept in a holding pattern of sorts simply because they are not as academically needy. This is not the spoken intent but a by-product of the high-stakes era in which we live.

I don't ever want to go back to a school in an affluent area. My heart and my passion lie with these children. But make no mistake, many of them "escape" to school each day. They escape hunger, fear, violence, uncertainty - and some even abuse. In the last 4 or 5 months, I have had to make three reports to CPS over students with bruises and injuries inflicted by guardians or parents. I am not an overzealous teacher who reports every scratch. I agonize of each report I must make.

I do have contact with wonderful parents who love their children and work incredibly hard to make the best life possible for their kiddos. However, they are often so stressed by just trying to survive, that they don't know or have the energy to provide the support and experiences that parents in higher socio-economic areas are able to give. Many of these parents were children themselves when they gave birth and may also be undereducated to boot.

I don't believe anyone commenting here believes that a child from poverty or of a different ethnicity is less than, but parents do have the very great responsibility to advocate for their own children and make choices that will forever impact their developing personas. That responsibility weighs heavy, and the quality of education available in different settings is a necessary consideration.

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Permalink Reply by Judi on February 17, 2009 at 1:57pm

It's so funny you bring this up, our most recent show that's up right now is on Private vs. Public schooling for your kid: http://www.lipsticknlaundry.com/ and I opted to take on the pro for Public schooling and one of the arguments I used was that I wanted diversity for my kids. Now Kate (as you'll see on the show) believes that her kids getting a better education is more important! It's so hard because I can see benefits from both sides! I'd love to see what you think after you hear both our sides! Great Discussion, thanks for putting it up!

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Permalink Reply by Eileen Kugler on February 17, 2009 at 3:18pm

We keep going back to the argument that kids get "a better education" in a school with peers who are all middle class. There is clear research that shows that students in diverse schools benefit academically in many ways, partly because of the benefit of hearing different perspectives and different points of view. That strengthens their critical thinking skills.

It's not about studying Chinese New Year. It's about a discussion told to me by a board-certified chemistry teacher. He said his class was discussing the relationship between science and society when the students got into a discussion on animal rights. The discussion became much deeper when a student who had recently come from an African nation raised the question of what animal rights are when people are facing starvation (as his family had). So now the middle class kids, used to a full refrigerator courtesy of their parents, could put a face on starvation and see that issues aren't always black and white. The entire class came to see the complexities of large and small issues facing our society and the world. This type of dialogue impacts the way they learn every subject. Students in diverse schools just think more deeply.

It's important to distinguish between schools that are diverse (economically, ethnically, racially) and schools where the student body is largely from a pocket of poverty. It's unfortunate that we still have so many schools that are segregated economically. As Kim's comments showed, there are wonderful teachers in many of these schools and they will indeed help students achieve. But the best solution for all the students is to give them the opportunity to learn in a more diverse environment.

I'm advocating that we work to create diverse schools, because that's the ideal environment. It means drawing school boundaries that maximize diversity instead of separation. Montgomery County, Md. and Fairfax County, Va., and are two districts that do this, and their students are among the top achieving in the country (including their growing populations of low-income immigrants). Most important, it means that middle-class parents need to go beyond the myths and stereotypes and come to understand that diverse schools are indeed better for their children. I made that journey myself and there is no turning back.

Eileen

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Permalink Reply by Kim on February 17, 2009 at 4:57pm

Eileen Kugler said:

We keep going back to the argument that kids get "a better education" in a school with peers who are all middle class. There is clear research that shows that students in diverse schools benefit academically in many ways, partly because of the benefit of hearing different perspectives and different points of view. That strengthens their critical thinking skills.
It's not about studying Chinese New Year. It's about a discussion told to me by a board-certified chemistry teacher. He said his class was discussing the relationship between science and society when the students got into a discussion on animal rights. The discussion became much deeper when a student who had recently come from an African nation raised the question of what animal rights are when people are facing starvation (as his family had). So now the middle class kids, used to a full refrigerator courtesy of their parents, could put a face on starvation and see that issues aren't always black and white. The entire class came to see the complexities of large and small issues facing our society and the world. This type of dialogue impacts the way they learn every subject. Students in diverse schools just think more deeply. Eileen

So right, Ellen! I spent two years teaching in South America and came back changed at my core. It is much too easy to believe that our perspective is the only one and thus the right one. Spending time in the company of others whose life experience and culture differ is invaluable and life altering.

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Permalink Reply by Kate Beem on February 17, 2009 at 5:56pm

Sarah Salas said:

I currently have my son in a kindergarten in a public school that is pretty diverse. While I love that he is exposed to all kinds of people I am constantly frustrated that the curriculum is so far below his abilities. He spent 2 years in pre-school and could read and do basic math before entering kindergarten. I know it is not fair to expect kids with no preschool learning to do what he can do but I feel like he is slipping a little more behind everyday.

Sarah, I'll tell you what my parents, both seasoned teachers who have taught for more than 40 years, tell me when I make the same complaint: It doesn't matter where your kid goes to school -- YOU'VE got to make sure he or she gets what he or she needs. So ask for some enrichment from the school, or provide it yourself.

I think there are social benefits to going to a school like that that can outweigh any perceived academic defaults, because you can make up for the academic stuff yourself.

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