Unequal Lessons: School Diversity and Educational Inequality in New York City

Classroom diversity, specifically the integration of more white students into predominantly Black schools, does not lead to better outcomes for Black students, according to this disquieting debut study. Education scholar Freidus focuses on New York schools that, due to gentrification, are experiencing an influx of white students. Drawing on interviews and her own immersive ethnographic observations conducted over nearly six years, she finds that diversity and integration—especially via an increase in the proportion of white students—are treated by teachers, administrators, and parents as a de facto solution for racial inequality, and yet this is emphatically not the end result. Instead, Freidus observes that Black students’ experience of diversity entails a “hidden curriculum” that “reinforces deeply rooted [racial and class] assumptions about [them] and their families.” For instance, she notes several instances in which Black and white students with similar behavioral problems received disproportionate treatment, resulting partly from educators’ assumptions that the white student was more likely to be from a good family. At the same time, diversity does offer benefits for students—mostly in terms of enrichment, or new experiences—but as Freidus persuasively demonstrates, solving inequality is not one of them. This urgent wake-up call is a must-read for educators. (Aug.)