More than two years after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-conscious student assignment policies in the Seattle and Louisville public schools, many other districts are needlessly avoiding strategies that can increase diversity and boost student achievement, NSBA General Counsel Francisco M. Negron Jr. said Saturday.
“Most school districts are simply going to run from diversity policies because of fear of litigation.” Negron said Saturday at a break out session titled “Diversity: Dead or Different?”
But running scared is a mistake, said Negron and Arthur L. Coleman, managing partner for EducationCounsel L.L.C. Within decades the United States will be a “majority minority” nation. Global economic competition will continue to increase. The most successful students will be those who can thrive in a diverse environment. And one way to prepare them for that future is to continue seeking diversity in public schools and classrooms as an academic goal.
“Race and diversity are very much in play,” Negron said. “But you have to do it the right way . It has to be part of a broad academic policy.”
That means districts not under court-ordered desegregation plans cannot seek to diversity as a means of redressing past discrimination; their efforts must instead have a broad academic purpose, Coleman said. He said the high court emphasized in its rejection of the Louisville plan that only about 3 percent of the district’s students would benefit from its race-based student assignments — hardly a prescription for broad academic benefit.
Districts interested in diversifying schools can use things like geographic boundaries, socioeconomic status, designation as English language learners, and other demographic criteria, but not if these are proxies for race, Negron said. And they should look to stakeholders outside the district, including businesses and community groups, to validate their actions, something the University of Michigan did in the wake of its own 2003 Supreme Court case concerning undergraduate admissions. In fact, Coleman said, looking at the policies of colleges and universities can benefit school districts as well.
“Who are the external validators who can come in and say, This is important to our success?’” Coleman asked. “And this is exactly what the University of Michigan did.”
He added: “Frankly, there is more abundant higher education consideration of race than in the K-12 setting,” Coleman said.
Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor, Publications
