The Courage to Stand for Diverse Schools
Testimony Before the Boston School Committee
My name is James Noonan. I live in Roxbury. I’m an associate professor of education and parent of two students at the Nathan Hale School.
I’d like to speak to you about the values you bring to your work on this committee. I hope and trust that each of you, in agreeing to serve, has a deep commitment to educational equity. I am grateful for that commitment and I share it.
It takes courage to work for equity and justice, because these values – while they are right – are not always popular. But five years ago, amid a national reckoning with entrenched racism, this committee marshaled tremendous courage in charging a task force to recommend more equitable admissions policies for Boston’s three exam schools.
I teach about educational justice -- specifically, the fight for school integration and the benefits of racially and economically diverse schools. The research is unambiguous: the benefits of diverse schools are large, broad, and long-lasting, not just academically but socially (on post secondary attainment, lifetime wages, poverty reduction and more). Importantly, benefits extend to all students. For policymakers who care about equity, there is no better policy better to enact your values than one maximizing student diversity.
And yet, despite these findings, resistance to diverse schools is fierce and unyielding. Which is why it takes courage to stand behind them.
Diversity in exam schools peaked in the mid-90s, thanks to a “set aside” from the federal court. Faced with a lawsuit from an aggrieved white family, the then-school committee quickly abandoned the set aside, moving to a more merit-based, “race-blind” admissions policy. Diversity in the schools plummeted.
That is, until 2021. The revised policy, championed by this committee, combining academic achievement with an effort to account for systemic and historical injustice, had an immediate and positive effect. Diversity – on multiple dimensions – has increased at all three schools.
In a sociopolitical climate that is brazenly hostile to equity efforts, it will require courage to resist the forces that would pull us backwards. But I trust and hope that, together, your values are up to the challenge. Thank you for your courage.
I’d like to speak to you about the values you bring to your work on this committee. I hope and trust that each of you, in agreeing to serve, has a deep commitment to educational equity. I am grateful for that commitment and I share it.
It takes courage to work for equity and justice, because these values – while they are right – are not always popular. But five years ago, amid a national reckoning with entrenched racism, this committee marshaled tremendous courage in charging a task force to recommend more equitable admissions policies for Boston’s three exam schools.
I teach about educational justice -- specifically, the fight for school integration and the benefits of racially and economically diverse schools. The research is unambiguous: the benefits of diverse schools are large, broad, and long-lasting, not just academically but socially (on post secondary attainment, lifetime wages, poverty reduction and more). Importantly, benefits extend to all students. For policymakers who care about equity, there is no better policy better to enact your values than one maximizing student diversity.
And yet, despite these findings, resistance to diverse schools is fierce and unyielding. Which is why it takes courage to stand behind them.
Diversity in exam schools peaked in the mid-90s, thanks to a “set aside” from the federal court. Faced with a lawsuit from an aggrieved white family, the then-school committee quickly abandoned the set aside, moving to a more merit-based, “race-blind” admissions policy. Diversity in the schools plummeted.
That is, until 2021. The revised policy, championed by this committee, combining academic achievement with an effort to account for systemic and historical injustice, had an immediate and positive effect. Diversity – on multiple dimensions – has increased at all three schools.
In a sociopolitical climate that is brazenly hostile to equity efforts, it will require courage to resist the forces that would pull us backwards. But I trust and hope that, together, your values are up to the challenge. Thank you for your courage.