The Top 5 Diversity Stories Of 2009

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As teachers and students return to school this week, it’s worth taking one last look back at 2009. We asked ourselves, “What five news stories most shaped diversity – and diversity education – in the classroom last year?” Here is our list. Feel free to share if you come up with a different one.

1. Race to the Top promotes charter schools. Michigan has passed major school reforms. California is poised to do the same. Tennessee and Minnesota are hot to follow. These and other states are reordering the educational universe to qualify for $4.35 billion in “Race to the Top” money. Applications for this Obama administration initiative are due January 19. Thanks to Race to the Top requirements, states will, among other things, create hundreds of new charter schools. But big questions remain about what this will actually achieve. Are charter schools a savior for failing school districts? Or are they self-segregation masked as reform?

2. Economic woes push up class sizes. Studies have shown that smaller class sizes improve the educational environment for teachers and students alike. But lack of money caused by the recession has prompted states to cut back on education spending. Once again, California leads the way. A state program begun in 1996 cut down K-3 class sizes from about 28.6 children per teacher to something approaching 20-to-1. But now the state has scaled back on class-size reduction as well as summer school. Naturally, these cutbacks hit poor schools the hardest. They are the least able to replace lost teachers and programs.

3. Advocate for gay students named to U.S. school safety office. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan named Kevin Jennings to the post of assistant deputy secretary for the Department of Education’s office of safe and drug-free schools. Jennings, a former history teacher, founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (or GLSEN). GLSEN worked to make schools safe for kids, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Jennings’ appointment outraged conservatives. Fox News personalities like Sean Hannity joined 53 House Republicans in demanding that he be fired.  They also launched a smear campaign against him that has – so far – been unsuccessful.

4. Achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students appear to narrow. A study by the Center on Education Policy found that the achievement gap between white and minority students is narrowing. It also found the gap narrowing between well-off and poorer students. And these gaps are closing because the traditionally disadvantaged students are doing better. Likewise, a National Center for Education Statistics study found that the gap between white and black students has narrowed slightly in math and reading. And another study by the Institute of Education Sciences found that Native American students have narrowed achievement gaps on state reading and math tests. Despite this good news, serious achievement gaps still remain in all cases.

5. Mississippi schools make civil rights part of K-12 instruction. Mississippi has traditionally been hostile to civil rights efforts. The state’s very name conjures up images of bombings, Klan rallies, and dead civil rights workers. So it is ironic that Mississippi will soon become the first state to mandate civil rights instruction for all K-12 students. A few school systems are serving as guinea pigs to test the curriculum in high schools. But by the 2010-2011 school year, the program should be ready in social studies classes at all grade levels.