Benefits Of Racial And Ethnic Diversity In Elementary And Secondary Education

A panel of experts briefed members of the U.S. Comm. on Civil Rights on the putative benefits of racial & ethnic diversity in elementary & secondary educ. (E&SE). Four experts presented written statements to the Commissioners that assessed the social science lit. on this issue: The Outcomes of School Desegregation in Public Schools, by David Armor; The Educational Benefits of Diversity in E&SE, by Arthur Coleman; The Benefits of Racial/Ethnic Diversity in E&SE, by Michal Kurlaender; & Demographic Perspectives on Diversity, Racial Isolation, & the Seattle School Board¿s Plan to ¿Cure¿ Residential ¿Segregation,¿ by Stephan Thernstrom. Also includes: Dissenting Statements of Comm. Arlan Melendez & Michael Yaki. Speaker Bio. Illus.

Teacher Diversity and Student Success makes a powerful case for diversifying the teaching force as an important policy lever for closing achievement gaps and moving schools closer to equity goals. Written by three leading scholars, the book provides nuanced solutions on how to diversify the teaching force, increase student exposures to same-race teachers, and improve teacher training for a culturally diverse student body. They argue that teacher diversity should be seen as one element of teacher quality, and policies focused on improving teacher quality should take race explicitly into consideration. The authors also address the historic and contemporary factors that have kept people of color out of teaching and highlight emerging research showing the significant, long-lasting impact of same-race teacher exposures, particularly for Black and Latino students. This timely book is a call to action for building teacher diversity to ensure student success.

Amid its growing diversity and shifting demographics, the U.S. is still home to glaring health inequities by race, ethnicity, and class. Yet while it is customary to identify poverty as their root cause, other complex mechanisms are involved in their perpetuation. Based on recent major studies on African-American, Latino, Asian-American, and Native American populations, Health Disparities in Youth and Families offers a thorough, nuanced examination of a wide range of causal—and protective—factors. Rigorous theories and models take into account cultural, contextual, and personal variables, including the roles of family identity, school, and neighborhood, and motivation toward health awareness (with attention paid to less frequently studied phenomena such as within-group inequalities and the Hispanic Health Paradox). Contributors approach their subjects with realism as well as optimism as the book: povides reliable information on the scope and etiology of health disparities, identifies the methodological and political challenges associated with this issue, proposes comprehensive, integrative models for understanding disparities, features examples of innovative programs for improving minority health, includes an in-depth chapter on substance use and mental health among Native American youth, offers a useful starting point for the exchange of ideas necessary to address health disparities. A provocative resource on a pressing social concern, Health Disparities in Youth and Families is necessary reading for health policy researchers, health care providers, and others dedicated to better health outcomes for all Americans.

In a world where basic human rights are under attack and discrimination is widespread, Advancing Equality reminds us of the critical role of constitutions in creating and protecting equal rights. Combining a comparative analysis of equal rights in the constitutions of all 193 United Nations member countries with inspiring stories of activism and powerful court cases from around the globe, the book traces the trends in constitution drafting over the past half century and examines how stronger protections against discrimination have transformed lives. Looking at equal rights across gender, race and ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity, disability, social class, and migration status, the authors uncover which groups are increasingly guaranteed equal rights in constitutions, whether or not these rights on paper have been translated into practice, and which nations lag behind. Serving as a comprehensive call to action for anyone who cares about their country’s future, Advancing Equality challenges us to remember how far we all still must go for equal rights for all. A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

Segregation is deepening in American schools as courts terminate desegregation plans, residential segregation spreads, the proportion of whites in the population falls, and successful efforts to use choice for desegregation, such as magnet schools, are replaced by choice plans with no civil rights requirements. Based on the fruits of a collaboration between the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University and the Southern Poverty Law Center, the essays presented in Lessons in Integration: Realizing the Promise of Racial Diversity in American Schools analyze five decades of experience with desegregation efforts in order to discover the factors accounting for successful educational experiences in an integrated setting. Starting where much political activity and litigation, as well as most previous scholarship, leaves off, this collection addresses the question of what to do--and to avoid doing--once classrooms are integrated, in order to maximize the educational benefits of diversity for students from a wide array of backgrounds. Rooted in substantive evidence that desegregation is a positive educational and social force, that there were many successes as well as some failures in the desegregation movement, and that students in segregated schools, whether overwhelmingly minority or almost completely white, are disadvantaged on some important educational and social dimensions when compared to their peers in well-designed racially diverse schools, this collection builds on but also goes beyond previous research in taking account of increasing racial and ethnic diversity that distinguishes present-day American society from the one addressed by the Brown decision a half-century ago. In a society with more than 40 percent nonwhite students and thousands of suburban communities facing racial change, it is critical to learn the lessons of experience and research regarding the effective operation of racially diverse and inclusive schools. Lessons in Integration will make a significant contribution to knowledge about how to make integration work, and as such, it will have a positive effect on educational practice while providing much-needed assistance to increasingly beleaguered proponents of integrated public education.