Facing Up to Race Relations in School

School Administrator, April, 1994 by Ray Bandlow

Race relations reached a near-crisis state in our school district.

Located in the heart of the northeast's research and development corridor and anchored by Princeton and Rutgers University with easy access to New York City and Philadelphia, our community has become the residence of choice for many of the scientists, professionals, and executives who drive New Jersey's economy.

Our towns have grown rapidly. Ten years ago, the school district served a small, nearly all-white, middle- to upper-income population of some 2,500 students. Today, it enrolls 6,200 students K-12, one-third minorities.

Mustering Commitment

Several race-related incidents took place last year--a conflict between student groups, racial epithet graffiti, and, most sadly, the drowning of two African-American youths fleeing police. The latter tragedy was not school-related and none of this community's students were involved. But it contributed to an already charged climate and rubbed raw the nerves of racial awareness.

Incidents of racial tension helped dramatize the need for actions the school board had been advocating and helped to muster commitment from staff, parents, students, community, and business leaders. Here is a summary of the measures we've taken.

* Parent involvement, especially that of fathers.

Parents' groups organized to work with the administration and on their own. Immediate results came from the work of the "father's coalition," African-American men who provide structured activities and mentoring for teen-agers.

* Assemblies for awareness and sensitivity.

Staff and students are engaging in activities for sensitivity, cultural awareness, and mutual respect, including topics like racism, gender bias, sexual harassment, and homophobia.

* Conflict-resolution training K12.

Resolving differences in collaborative ways are taught in a "peacemaking" program for elementary students, facilitating skills for middle grades, a required program for all ninth graders, and an in-depth elective class for grades 10-12 to train mediators for the high school's peer-mediation center.

* Human relations weekend and student leadership.

One hundred and two students out of a high school population of 1,670 participated in a weekend retreat organized by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Participants are providing leadership in promoting tolerance and respect. The most expensive of our efforts, costing about $20,000, this initiative built student ownership in solving the problems students live with on a daily basis.

* Thorough revision of the discipline code.

Parents, students, and staff are developing standards of student behavior that are highly prescriptive to ensure consistency, provide increasing penalties for repeat offenders, and include counseling.

* Multicultural infusion into the curriculum.

In language arts and social studies, we are infusing multicultural curricula. Our "United Nations" population makes this a challenging but vital effort.

* Moving toward heterogeneous grouping.

Structural changes are under way to move from low-expectation classes that tend to segregate and to help children succeed in more challenging classes by means of tutoring and in-class assistance.

* A community effort in minority recruiting.

A good role model can be of any race, but having staff members of their own race can help to break down the isolation some minority students experience. Principals in multiracial teams recruit in a large geographical area, and parents open their homes to recruits to make them welcome.

These efforts raised the staffs minority population from 5.9 percent in 1991 to 8.5 percent in 1993, despite growing competition for minority teachers and a shrinking pool of minority candidates.

No one part of these plans is a magic bullet that will improve race relations taken alone. But as a whole these measures can cause long-lasting, systemic change.