In the first episode of This American Life’s two-part series on school segregation, journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones argues what many in the education community already know: school integration works as a solution to the country’s academic inequality problem. Yet apart from a few notable cities, not many have pursued ways to diversify their schools, in part because attempts to do so have—and continue to be—met with immense backlash from white parents.
In the episode, Hannah-Jones examines the enflamed reaction to the integration of Missouri’s languishing all-black Normandy school district with majority-white Francis Howell district. Here’s what one of the Francis Howell parents says at a public meeting with school administrators:
I'm concerned about my children's education and safety. This is not a race issue. This is a commitment to education issue.
The fear among white parents that their kids won’t get as good an education in a highly integrated school is a typical one. But according to a recent report by the National Center for Education Statistics, white student performance doesn’t actually suffer in diverse schools...
[For more of this story, written by Tanvi Misra, go to http://www.citylab.com/housing...-test-scores/411550/]
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