Published Monday, November 15, 2004
Achieving the Promise of Brown; New Research on the Role of Teachers in the Multicultural Classroom
by Tucker McCravy

On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court issued its monumental decision that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," and the system of education in the United States was forever changed.

Or so it was thought.

In celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs Board of Education ruling through a series of lectures and conferences over the past several months at Harvard, the shortcomings of Brown’s implementation and effects have received as much attention as its significance as a civil rights landmark.

Last week’s Askwith Lecture Series explored the related theme of success and failure of Brown on the role of teachers with respect to the integration of classrooms in US Schools.

Moderated by HGSE Professor and Co-Director of the Harvard Civil Rights Project Gary Orfield, the panel of researchers from across the United States gathered in the Askwith forum to speak on some of the most pressing issues facing educators in multi-racial classrooms today.

The panelists included Rebecca Bigler from the University of Texas at Austin, Willis Hawley from the University of Maryland – College Park, Seymour Feshbach from the University of California at Los Angeles, and Christine Sleeter from California State University – Monterrey Bay. HGSE Professor Emeritus Charles Willie served as the respondent for the evening’s session.

The convening of this panel was a collaborative effort between The Civil Rights Project at Harvard and the Southern Law and Poverty Center, the prominent civil rights law firm based in Alabama that is internationally renowned for its education programs on tolerance and its civil rights victories against white supremacists - as well its pivotal role in civil rights lawsuits such as Brown.

Orfield opened the forum with a brief introduction of Richard Cohen, current CEO of the Center. Cohen explained the necessity of current research being conducted by the panelists on integration in schools, and pointed to the continued polarization around racial issues and schools by looking at last week’s election results. “Alabama cast 60% of our votes for Bush,” Cohen noted, implying that popular support for the current administration’s programs such as No Child Left Behind were in fact counter-productive towards progress for minority students’ education gains.

Nonetheless, the panel stood in agreement that improving the standards of achievement constituted a positive aspect of NCLB, the panelists agree. Christine Sleeter added that the “institutionalization of low expectations is a form of racism,” and a real result of poor preparation on the part of teachers. All the same, the panel seemed to agree with Professor Willie when he explained that “the legislation does nothing for school districts that are left behind, and for schools that are left behind.”

The range of questions for the panel posed by Orfield touched on topics such as the state of educators in the classroom today to the cognitive abilities of young children to deal with issues of race in the classroom, and included the prospects for research that graduate students in schools of Education might pursue in the field.

Sleeter pointed out the homogenization of the teaching profession – specifically the absence of African Americans – as a major problem facing the nation’s schools. “Most teacher education programs are predominantly white,” she confirmed. Sleeter also explained the difficulty of teaching diversity with an ethnically uniform cohort. She commented that there is often a lack of research linking teacher education programs with the diversity that teachers actually experience in the profession.

When asked to summarize the panelists’ presentation of their research, Professor Charles Willie concurred with Sleeter’s assessment that a diverse classroom is the best place to teach. “I see no value at all in assigning students to school by neighborhood,” he continued, referring to the de facto segregation which still persists in many urban communities across the United States. “Excellence and equity complement each other,” he explained, “and both of these must develop in unison for our classrooms to become a better place”.

HGSE student Camsie Matis, Vice President of Student Life and master’s candidate in the Learning and Teaching Program, commented on the research into teaching such as that of the panelists’, noting that courses like HGSE Professor Kay Merseth’s “School Reform” and HGSE Professor Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot’s “Sociology of Education” are able to highlight the challenges unique to successful education in multi-racial classrooms. But, she added, “many of my courses tend to present an enormous amount of negativism.” Instead of concentrating so often on where we have failed, we must turn to our successes as well. “Excellence needs to be documented,” she explained. “I think that speaks to the heart of the issue.”

The Askwith Forum last week followed a series of lectures and conferences on the Brown anniversary, which culminated in the spring with a weeklong series of events and lectures around Harvard and Boston. For more information, visit: Harvard Civil Rights Project

Tucker McCravy is an EdM candidate in International Education Policy at HGSE