Integrating Suburban Schools: How to Benefit from Growing Diversity and Avoid Segregation
About the Manual
Integrating Suburban Schools was written to help guide education stakeholders in efforts to promote racial diversity and avoid racial isolation in suburban school systems.
This manual provides critical information on the current legal, political and policy issues that inform those efforts. It first addresses the critical importance of creating diverse learning environments in racially changing suburban school districts. The manual then addresses the legal landscape governing school integration policy, in addition to outlining general principles for creating racially diverse schools. It also examines the vital role that teachers and administrators play in building successfully integrated schools and classrooms. The second half of the manual includes a number of specific examples of suburban school districts experimenting with strategies to promote integrated schools. The authors dedicate the final chapter to describing methods for building the political will in communities for voluntary integration policies.
Key areas of research include:
- A comprehensive discussion of the critical importance of diverse learning environments in racially changing suburban school districts
- The history of court-ordered desegregation efforts and an overview of the current legal landscape governing school integration policy
- General legal principles for creating racially diverse schools
- The vital role that teachers and administrators play in building successfully integrated schools and classrooms
- Specific examples of suburban school districts promoting high quality, inclusive and integrated schools
- Strategies for teaching in racially diverse classrooms
- Methods for building the political will and support in your community for voluntary integration policies
- An extensive and reader-friendly list of education and legal resources including easily disseminated fact sheets on important topics related to school diversity
