A student pleads for diversity in school
When my 8-year-old sister, Johanna, moved to Neil Cummins Elementary, she quickly remarked she had never seen so many girls in her class with the same hair color as her new blonde and blue-eyed friend Emma. Johanna recognized her teachers and peers at this new school look nothing like her.
This may seem unremarkable, but each day Johanna walks the campus of her new school wondering why she looks different. If the purpose of school is to learn beyond the perspective of the “Emmas” of this world, it seems we have failed our students with the lack of diversity in Marin County schools. Diversifying faculty is beneficial, as it prepares students for a diverse workspace and reduces racial prejudice.
When schools include students from multiple ethnic backgrounds, meaningful relationships between individuals can impact how people treat racial and ethnic groups.
With the rise of globalization, it is crucial students work with different people from all sorts of backgrounds. Stanford University explored the benefits of diversity in the health care industry. Stanford’s studies found the likelihood of living in an area with insufficient health care coverage dramatically increases in impoverished areas, which statistically affects more people of color.
Researchers found evidence that minority physicians were significantly more likely than their White counterparts to provide health care to populations that need it most. Hospitals with a more diverse staff increased the level of health care given to their POC community than their White counterparts.
Whether a child decides to advance to a career in health care, education or a different field, a diverse work environment is beneficial to whichever area they pursue. Additionally, diverse schools help to reduce racial bias and close racial achievement gaps.
Children are prone to making stereotypes about racial groups when educated in racially isolated settings. When schools include students from multiple ethnic backgrounds, meaningful relationships between individuals can impact how people treat racial and ethnic groups.
For example, in Hartford, Connecticut, where racially diverse interdistrict magnet schools were created, discrepancies in state reading test scores between Black and White and Latino and White students were eliminated by the third grade. Meaning, White student
achievement did not decline, but Black and Latino student achievement increased.
Given the benefits a more diverse workspace offers, it would be beneficial to conduct cluster hiring to combat the lack of diversity present in Marin County schools. Cluster hiring is the process of hiring faculty members in one or more departments who share similarities, specifically in race, ethnicity, or research interest. If done right, cluster hiring is an effective method to diversify an institution’s faculty.
When Donald Pope-Davis, the dean of the College of Education and Human Ecology at Ohio State, recruited several Black faculty members to various departments, he observed that, “It is visionary to see a Black male taking on the status quo … but he is doing everything he can to ensure that achievement gaps are closed and that students see faculty that look like them.” Certainly schools can learn and strive to emulate his proactive stance to promote diversity in education.
Still, it is essential to note that this recommendation is a starting point to create change. If schools fail to support their students and faculty of color upon arrival, then the time and effort spent hiring will be ineffective.
I hope there comes a day when young students like Johanna no longer walk the school campus wishing they looked more like their White peers, but take ownership over their cultural heritage with pride. Educators, I strongly advise that diversifying schools’ faculty should be a priority.
Jasmine Estreba as a junior at Redwood High School and a Larkspur resident. IJ readers are invited to share their stories of love, dating, parenting, marriage, friendship and other experiences for our How It Is column, which runs Tuesdays in the Lifestyles section. All stories must not have been published in part or in its entirety previously. Send your stories of no more than 600 words to lifestyles@ marinij.com. Please write How It Is in the subject line. The IJ reserves the right to edit them for publication. Please include your full name, address and a daytime phone number.