As Susan Troller recently explored, the demographics of MMSD continue to move toward more minorities and more poverty (the story was quite good and the comments are worth a look too). This essay from the Teacher’s College Record by Sean P. Corcoran & Jennifer Booher-Jennings of New York University offers a nice overview of research that demonstrates the continued salience of race in the quest for equity or equality of educational opportunity — particularly in reference to teacher “quality” — in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision.
Excerpt:
The Court’s decision to ban the use of race in school assignment may only serve to exacerbate the unequal distribution of teachers across schools. Through teachers’ “preference for home,” the nation’s residentially segregated communities are already mirrored in the segregation of teachers and teaching talent across schools. Where racially isolated schools serve as a deterrent to new teachers, any decision that further isolates minority students in individual schools will only accelerate the loss of talented teachers from high-minority schools. In integrated schools, children of color benefit from a cadre of higher-caliber teachers they simply would not have access to were their schools racially segregated
Thomas J. Mertz
AMPS 