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In Bangor, efforts have gone above and beyond just diversity training. Almost as many-33 percent-said their districts or schools made no changes. Still others set up affinity groups for their students of color.īut when a recently conducted EdWeek Research Center survey asked principals and district leaders what, if any, anti-racism efforts their district or school took on following the calls for racial justice last year, the most common response-with 34 percent of respondents-was diversity or anti-bias training, which research suggests isn’t promising for long-term change. A handful of others overhauled the way they screen children for their gifted programs. Several dozen districts abolished their school police force. Racism inside America’s classrooms received outsized attention during the pandemic as disparities widened, student activism revved up, and the parents of students of color peeked over their children’s shoulders during remote schooling, many witnessing teachers’ biases and microaggressions up close.Īfter last spring and summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, superintendents across the country pledged in seemingly heartfelt letters to parents that they’d do everything in their power to fight racism in their schools. This has accelerated in recent years K-12 leaders’ historically fitful efforts to make classrooms and schools equitable for students of color. And I’m no longer so convinced.Īcross the nation, America’s school districts are rapidly diversifying. I’ve also thought back to my own high school experience in India where I was part of the dominant caste. But I’ve been watching and reporting what’s been happening in the country in the year following Floyd’s murder. The administrators seemed committed to equity in school, and the district appeared to be investing lots of money and time into these initiatives.
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Claims now go directly to the newly hired affirmative action coordinator.īut was it enough to change the high school experience of students of color in Bangor? And it set up a way for middle and high school students to report discrimination using their school-issued devices. The district hired a Black-led equity and justice institute to offer diversity training for teachers, commissioned an independent investigation of the students’ claims that cost the district at least $70,000, and overhauled the high school’s history and English curriculum to include more voices of color. Black students, who make up less than 4 percent of the school’s population, said their white classmates justified white supremacy during classroom discussions, defended the enslavement of Black people, told them to “go back where they came from,” and regularly said the “N” word in the schools’ hallways and classrooms, according to six months of reporting I conducted in 2020.įor years, Bangor’s school officials ignored the litany of complaints students filed, but when my article, “ Racism Is My High School Experience ,” was published last May, amid nationwide protests spurred by the murder of George Floyd, the response from the school department was swift and abrupt.
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I was a local reporter in Bangor, Maine, in December 2019 when I heard three Black students first voice their complaints at a joint school committee and city council meeting about years of racism they endured at one of the state’s largest high schools.
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This story is part of a special project called Big Ideas in which EdWeek reporters ask hard questions about K-12 education’s biggest challenges and offer insights based on their extensive coverage and expertise.