Integrating Race and Class

Integration is important for a well-rounded intellectual experience and for education equity. A diverse classroom can help students gain different perspectives and points of view, which is beneficial to learning. When each student comes from a varying background, he or she can enrich the classroom conversation to a greater extent.  Integrating schools can also extend beyond the classroom.  According to the Teachers College of Columbia: “desegregation made the vast majority of the students who attended these schools less racially prejudiced and more comfortable around people of different backgrounds.”[2] Those who feel at ease with differing groups of people will have advantages in the work force and be less prejudiced.  

Although racial diversity, in education, is important some experts believe that socioeconomic diversity matters more. When trying to determine why the achievement gap was so stark one sociologist  “found that the varying amount of money spent on schools didn’t account for the achievement gap. Instead, the greater poverty of black families did.”[3]  There is a significant advantage to combining people of different socioeconomic backgrounds: for students who are wealthier, exposure to alternative economic situations can increase their awareness and sensitivity to the privilege they hold and for those who are impoverished, socioeconomic diversity may be more important to their education than racial diversity. One sociologist deduced “that poor black sixth-graders in majority middle-class schools were 20 months ahead of poor black sixth-graders in majority low-income schools. The statistics for poor white students were similar”[4] Today, in part due to oppression, race and socioeconomics are heavily intertwined; because of this the best way to narrow the achievement gap is a combination of racial and socioeconomic diversity. 

---

[2] Amy S Wells, Jennifer J. Holme, Anita T. Revilla, and Awo K. Atanda: "TC Media Center from the Office of External Affairs.“ How Desegregation Changed Us: The Effects of Racially Mixed Schools on Students and Society.”

[3] Emily Bazelon "The Next Kind of Integration." The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 July 2008.

[4] IBID