Diversity in private schools

[Anonymous]

There has been a fantastic improvement in terms of diversity in private schools. For instance, there is now significantly more racial diversity, and schools closely monitor it. My experience with this has been absolutely positive. However, I have noticed that this progress reflects only partial diversity. Many disadvantaged groups still seem underrepresented, for example, families with low incomes, single-parent households, or children with disabilities (not counting ADHD, which has become quite common). Do you think your school could go further in promoting diversity, or is racial diversity considered sufficient?

[Anonymous]

I don't know. 30 years ago my private school was roughly as diverse as the same school is now. Difference now is that the tuition is so much higher that the proportion of really rich kids (and bmoc parents) is a lot higher. My parents stretched to pay full tuition then and would never be able to afford it now.

For reference it's about $60k now vs 10k my last year in school in the early 90s. ($10k then is about $24k now, adjusted for inflation.)

[Anonymous]

The economic barrier is the biggest hurdle. Cost of living and cost of education have outpaced lower and middle class families. Throw in DMV traffic and poor mass transit outside the city limits, and it's a grim picture for greater diversity.

Add in the empowered anti-woke crowd right now and they will mostly remain privilege hoarding schools.

Not sure any DMV independents have the endowment to widen their economic reach like some of the uber elite and wealthy New England boarders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The economic barrier is the biggest hurdle. Cost of living and cost of education have outpaced lower and middle class families. Throw in DMV traffic and poor mass transit outside the city limits, and it's a grim picture for greater diversity.

Add in the empowered anti-woke crowd right now and they will mostly remain privilege hoarding schools.

Not sure any DMV independents have the endowment to widen their economic reach like some of the uber elite and wealthy New England boarders.

A few do. Madeira, as an example, just got a $60M gift that pushed its endowment to almost $150M. 40% of students receive aid.

[Anonymous]

Diversity can mean anything you want it to.

Diversity of interests, sports, and hobbies. Diversity in the location of houses, careers of parents, and family structure.

You can fixate on race and socioeconomic diversity if you want, but it really depends on what matters to you.

If you want socioeconomic diversity, giving out financial aid is insanely expensive and uses funds that could go elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The economic barrier is the biggest hurdle. Cost of living and cost of education have outpaced lower and middle class families. Throw in DMV traffic and poor mass transit outside the city limits, and it's a grim picture for greater diversity.

Add in the empowered anti-woke crowd right now and they will mostly remain privilege hoarding schools.

Not sure any DMV independents have the endowment to widen their economic reach like some of the uber elite and wealthy New England boarders.

A few do. Madeira, as an example, just got a $60M gift that pushed its endowment to almost $150M. 40% of students receive aid.

At most schools, a lot of families that receive aid are already well off and just get tiny aid package. Then schools can say 40% of students receive aid.

[Anonymous]

All 3 of your examples (low income, single parent, disabilities) may have struggles in private schools that might make the experience not as wonderful as you think. Not that I think they should be excluded or discriminated against. I'm just saying there's a reality that private schools can be full of rich kids going on vacations and buying whatever they want, which may be less than ideal if your single mom or low income family can't. Even the schedule can be harder for single parents than public school. And disabilities require resources that private schools may not want to invest in. My point is, you want kids to thrive. A school can only handle so much. It's unlikely they can ALSO address financial diversity and learning style diversity.
No school can be everything to everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Diversity can mean anything you want it to.

Diversity of interests, sports, and hobbies. Diversity in the location of houses, careers of parents, and family structure.

You can fixate on race and socioeconomic diversity if you want, but it really depends on what matters to you.

If you want socioeconomic diversity, giving out financial aid is insanely expensive and uses funds that could go elsewhere.

What matters to you and does your school pursue that kind of diversity?

Ours is does a good job with diversity of thought, socioeconomic diversity and supporting students with learning differences all of which are important to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Diversity can mean anything you want it to.

Diversity of interests, sports, and hobbies. Diversity in the location of houses, careers of parents, and family structure.

You can fixate on race and socioeconomic diversity if you want, but it really depends on what matters to you.

If you want socioeconomic diversity, giving out financial aid is insanely expensive and uses funds that could go elsewhere.

What matters to you and does your school pursue that kind of diversity?

Ours is does a good job with diversity of thought, socioeconomic diversity and supporting students with learning differences all of which are important to me.

Any diversity, no matter in what dimensions, is good than having no diversity, for example a very white religious school! Any effort toward recruiting students across race, culture , neurodiversity, and social economical diversity is very important for us. Diversity is where novel and critical thinking’s are happening!

[Anonymous]

Socio-economic diversity is most difficult because the students need the largest financial aid and also the largest teacher aid. A family with a single mom with no college education will not have a student that is as well-supported at home to thrive in one of these schools. I'm not saying it's bad to have these kids, but it's probably why we don't see much true socio-economic diversity.

[Anonymous]

If people cared that much about diversity they would just go to a public school. They don't care and there don't seem to be a lot of compelling reasons as to why they should.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All 3 of your examples (low income, single parent, disabilities) may have struggles in private schools that might make the experience not as wonderful as you think. Not that I think they should be excluded or discriminated against. I'm just saying there's a reality that private schools can be full of rich kids going on vacations and buying whatever they want, which may be less than ideal if your single mom or low income family can't. Even the schedule can be harder for single parents than public school. And disabilities require resources that private schools may not want to invest in. My point is, you want kids to thrive. A school can only handle so much. It's unlikely they can ALSO address financial diversity and learning style diversity.
No school can be everything to everyone.

I am a single mom, and my kid went to an elite private for a stretch before returning to public. It was not difficult for us to manage the experience or the logistics. We received substantial aid as we have one salary and I work in public education. In our experience, we were not aspiring to a wealthy lifestyle of fancy things and vacations, and it was actually really humorous how awkward many of the wealthy families felt around us. There were all of these attempts to loan us skis and get us connected to the fancy scene, and we didn't want it or feel at all awkward that we weren't part of it. Here's the secret: many private school teachers and other staff members aren't so wealthy themselves, so families like ours had deeper, more authentic, and more immediate connections within the faculty community. This part was really cool. We were there for the school and its values, and the school, had it the means, would have been totally need blind. It was cool knowing that my kid was there because they wanted them, not because they wanted our money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If people cared that much about diversity they would just go to a public school. They don't care and there don't seem to be a lot of compelling reasons as to why they should.

We cared. But what we cared more about was integration. A lot of public (and private) schools have surface diversity but are socially segregated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Socio-economic diversity is most difficult because the students need the largest financial aid and also the largest teacher aid. A family with a single mom with no college education will not have a student that is as well-supported at home to thrive in one of these schools. I'm not saying it's bad to have these kids, but it's probably why we don't see much true socio-economic diversity.

Ours has lower tuition so there is greater socioeconomic diversity. And fewer fancy trimmings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people cared that much about diversity they would just go to a public school. They don't care and there don't seem to be a lot of compelling reasons as to why they should.

We cared. But what we cared more about was integration. A lot of public (and private) schools have surface diversity but are socially segregated.

It’s low on the priority list. A nice to have but not necessary.