What does a diverse school look like?

[Anonymous]

What would the pie chart of a diverse school look like, in your opinion. What I mean is, at what point would you consider it "diverse"?

[Anonymous]

It would be representative of the country in gender and ethnicity. Kind of like Congress should be, but isn't in any way.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and the faculty would also be gender and ethnicity representative, instead of as is the case in my preschool with 20 female teachers and 2 male ones.

[Anonymous]

No clear racial or class majority among students or staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be representative of the country in gender and ethnicity. Kind of like Congress should be, but isn't in any way.

It would be impossible in many (if not most) places for schools to be representative of the country in ethnicity.

[Anonymous]

Whites, blacks, Asians, hispanics all represented over 10% but no one group over 50%. Our school has got it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whites, blacks, Asians, hispanics all represented over 10% but no one group over 50%. Our school has got it.

Schools can be diverse with one group over 50%. More importantly, imo, is a small or preferably non-existent achievement gap. That's what our school has.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, and the faculty would also be gender and ethnicity representative, instead of as is the case in my preschool with 20 female teachers and 2 male ones.

Most teachers are women, in preschool, elementary, and throughout middle and high school. Possibly at all-boys schools, it's not true.

[Anonymous]

Add "has to be a small school" to the above. DC's middle school was statistically socially and economically diverse. Diverse teachers too. The school was big and all cliques. No diversity in social interactions, physical fights between different racial groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, and the faculty would also be gender and ethnicity representative, instead of as is the case in my preschool with 20 female teachers and 2 male ones.

Most teachers are women, in preschool, elementary, and throughout middle and high school. Possibly at all-boys schools, it's not true.

I know this; I'm saying that an ideal environment would be representative of the division of men and women in our society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be representative of the country in gender and ethnicity. Kind of like Congress should be, but isn't in any way.

It would be impossible in many (if not most) places for schools to be representative of the country in ethnicity.

We could do far better in most places than we do, though, especially in any area that isn't rural.

[Anonymous]

Well this begs the question- what is diversity? Is it just kids whose skin colors are different? Or is it diversity in income, in beliefs, in life experiences, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well this begs the question- what is diversity? Is it just kids whose skin colors are different? Or is it diversity in income, in beliefs, in life experiences, etc.

and sexuality, gender identity, and all that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be representative of the country in gender and ethnicity. Kind of like Congress should be, but isn't in any way.

It would be impossible in many (if not most) places for schools to be representative of the country in ethnicity.

We could do far better in most places than we do, though, especially in any area that isn't rural.

Diversity does not equal good in school. We had all of the above mentioned about diversity. School offered tons of classes, different levels, different tracks. Kids kept to non-diverse cliques, there was no love lost between cliques. There were diversity mishaps too, but they were solved without parents involvement (e.g. placement in math based on test results where used differently based on race, but math teachers protested).

[Anonymous]

I would assume it was around 50% or less Caucasian, and that the other 50% were a mix of AA, Asian and Hispanic kids. I'd assume maybe 20% FARMS and a similar ESOL percent and some international kids. I'd assume that it had a range of HHI's, like a few very wealthy parents, a few very poor parents but most everyone else in the middle. Ideally, you'd also have at least one male teacher per grade and some people of color among the faculty.

We're at a school that is 48% caucasian, with a good mix of AA, Asian and Hispanic that essentially mirrors the mix in our county. We have 21% FARMS and a lot of international students.