Race in suburban schools
The suburbs are no longer just white picket fences and green manicured lawns. They're diversifying. So what does that mean for suburban schools?
Picture the suburbs. Before Arcade Fire, there was Leave It to Beaver, the white picket fence, perfectly manicured lawns. You’re probably not conjuring an image of a diverse place.
Yet data show the suburbs are increasingly diversifying. Today more than one-third of all suburban residents are people of color.
As the suburbs are diversifying so are their schools. Yet even in a diverse and well-resourced school district, a racial achievement gap remains.
Dr. L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy studied one Midwestern suburban school district to find out why. He wrote up his findings in the book, Inequality in the Promised Land: Race, Resources and Suburban Schooling.