Some Christian schools are finally grappling with their racist past and segregated present

At the height of desegregation, the achievement gap between white and black students decreased to 18 percent, compared to 49 percent. Evidence suggests integrating schools works, because it gives students of color access to the same resources as white students. Yet, schools remain largely segregated along class and racial lines. In Missouri, after Normandy School District in Normandy lost its accreditation, black students were given an opportunity to transfer into the much more affluent, and mostly white school district, Frances Howell. This episode shows the challenges of integrating schools.

Glenn Cantave is bridging two worlds- AR technology and school curriculum, in order to educate students about Black and Brown people's history. With a team of coders he created an app called “Movers and Shakers.” The app has a catalog of “heroes you never learn about in school.” Student users navigate the app to learn about the heroes; women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community. The app is being tested in one school district. “This sounds horrible, but we need to see what white people actually did to Black people because textbooks only tell you this much — and it’s not enough."

Despite segregation being deemed unconstitutional, nationally, many schools remain segregated along racial and class lines. Integrate Schools, a national grassroots movement, is focused on integrating schools.

As tensions over race and education continue to be compounded by growing economic inequality and political rhetoric, one school in Connecticut bridges an otherwise widening divide. Schools like R.J. Kinsella Magnet School of Performing Arts - once the poorest and one of the most racially segregated schools in the state - are inspiring voluntary desegregation by offering successful magnet programs and busing students safely and efficiently across neighborhoods. The successful demonstration of integration in Kinsella is serving as a positive model for other schools around the nation.

Medical schools and public health programs have shifted some of their practices in an effort to attract more Black students, such as by removing GRE requirements and recruiting more Black faculty, and these schools have seen an influx of applications during the pandemic. One example is Brown University's Health Equity Scholars program, which offers tuition support, a paid research assistantship, and formalized mentorship to a diverse cohort each year.

All over the country, students are using the internet to call out racism. Young people are publishing open letters, creating Change.org petitions and Google Docs “with lists of racist people in their classes, and using online platforms to organize protests.” In Boston, teens from the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center wrote an open letter asking school officials to address the wave of anti-asian hate crimes. After the letter, officials issued a resolution. Although, in some instances these actions do result in change, sometimes it can result in censorship towards students of color.

In 2019, close to half, or 45 percent of white students scored proficient or above in reading comprehension, compared to 18 percent of Black fourth graders, and 23 percent of Latinx fourth graders. However, research shows that exposing students of color to books that reflect their culture increases reading comprehension and motivation. In the wake of those disparities, American teachers are beginning to reckon with the lack of diverse authors they teach. Some teachers are launching social justice classes, requiring more diverse books, and challenging norms.

In the mid-60’s, Anne Forsyth, an heiress, noticed that despite Brown V. Board of education, white prep schools in the South were not being integrated. She wanted to change that. She also thought that by exposing white students to Black students it would make them less bigoted. So, she created the Stouffer foundation, which recruited Black students and placed them in white prep schools. In its first year, 20 black teenagers were placed in 7 white prep schools. Decades later, one student says it made him less racist.

Part 2 of 3 in Series "The Social Wall: Universal Lessons in Berlin's Attempt to Integrate Schools" - A progressive funding model has been a boon to schools in Berlin’s poorer neighborhoods, which receive a baseline of staff and resources. But schools in poorer neighborhoods face a myriad of struggles that additional resources haven’t been able to quell, due to the deep socioeconomic disparities between the home neighborhoods of wealthy and poor students. This "social wall" lies exactly along the lines of the once physical Berlin wall and now divide the haves and have-nots.

Part 2 of the "Equity or Bust: Are Ontario's Public Schools a Model for Pennsylvania" Series: Ontario has become widely lauded for its education system, celebrated for both high performance and relatively smaller achievement gaps between wealthy and poor students, particularly compared to the system in Pennsylvania. Keys to Ontario's success include celebrating diversity and catering education modules to the varied backgrounds of their students, as well as increased parent-teacher involvement.