Service Learning

PART 1: ESSAY 0

60 Years After Brown: Part 1

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Since the U.S Supreme court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, integration in public schools has improved. There is no evident segregation of students in schools based on race or ethnicity. Enrollment of minority students is fairly good in public schools. Before the Brown case no one though these changing demographics were possible. However, even after all the changes many schools in communities continue to be highly segregated more than 6 decades later (Maxwell, 2014). There is still need to make sure that segregation does not exist. The best way to do this is for public schools to come up with diversity management plan to be used during enrollment of students.

Diversity management plan will ensure that students from different races and ethnicity including socioeconomic backgrounds, English-learner status, and disability status are considered during enrollment. According to the mayor of Kansas City, Sylvester James Jr., race is no longer an issue when it comes to segregation in public schools. There are other factors that contribute to segregation such as the economic status of some students. Students from different ethnic groups and background are supposed to be encouraged to interact in order to avoid segregation among them. Therefore diversity management plan is a better way to encourage students from different background and ethnic to interact and learn from each other

Diversity in public schools is the solution to current segregation issues. The 100,000-Jefferson County, Ky. school systems have adopted various combinations of measures such as family income, adult educational-attainment levels, including race when making enrollment decisions. Additionally, the 83,000-student system in Nashville, Tenn., has also put in place a diversity management plan that ensures that student enrollment takes into consideration race, ethnicity, household income, and language-learner and disability status. The schools make sure that no single race or ethnicity makes up more than half of the enrolled students. Segregation should not be a factor in the 21 century therefore schools should be use diversity to prevent segregation in schools.

Educators can use diversity management plan to enhance their cultural competence by making sure that the decisions they make during enrollment of students takes into consideration diversity of students. Promoting student diversity will also broaden the educators’ perspective in teaching. Additionally, the experience of teaching more diverse students will enable educators make decisions that take into account the needs of all students especially those from poor families. According to Jesse Register, a superintendent, educators need to keep diversity in mind when making decisions in schools including recruitment of staff, location of new schools, and attendance zones (Maxwell, 2014).

In conclusion, the best way to desegregate schools is to make schools diverse not just racially or ethnically, but also socioeconomically and disability status. Diversifying schools is the best option to ensure equal opportunities to all students, whether rich or poor, white or black, disabled or not, and educational level of the parent. Children in schools comes from different background and ethnic therefore this is the best place to help them learn equality and appreciating each other

Reference

Maxwell, L. (2014). 60 Years After Brown, School Diversity More Complex Than Ever. Education Week. Retrieved 13 May 2017, from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/05/14/31brown-overview.h33.html