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Racial Diversity: 2000 Update

The national holiday honoring Martin Luther King is an appropriate time to review racial diversity in private schools. So how are we doing, really?
 

Teachers
NAIS Statistics 1998 (the National Association of Independent Schools' annual statistical report in key areas of independent school operations) reports faculty of color "as 9 percent of the independent school teaching force, up from 4 percent in1987," this according to the brilliant article entitled Attracting and Retaining Teachers of Color by Pearl Rock Kane and Alfonso J. Orsini. 

Schools
"Although the public perception is that independent schools lack diversity, the research shows that independent schools tend to be more diverse than public schools, since the former actively seek diversity and draw from many communities whereas the latter are dependent on neighborhood living patterns where populations tend to concentrate in ethnic enclaves...between around 20% of the student body is comprised of students of color."  So says Patrick Bassett, Executive Director of the Independent Schools Association of the Central States, in one of his well written papers which can be found on the ISACS site.

So far, so good! But you and I know that there is so much more we must do to eradicate racial prejudice. What can we as the private school community do? These links will get you started:

Be sure to read Black Ice by Lorene Cary. Her experiences at St. Paul's School, Concord, NH offer glimpses into how it felt to be one of the first black students (and a female too) in what was formerly a predominantly white, boys' school.

My colleague, Kimberly Hohman, offers a very complete look at Race Relations. I commend it to you.

Dr. King, your dream lives on in the hearts of all of us who "hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
 

--Rob Kennedy, Private Schools Guide
 

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