Suddenly Diverse: How School Districts Manage Race and Inequality

by Erica O. Turner

For the past five years, American public schools have enrolled more students identified as Black, Latinx, American Indian, and Asian than white. At the same time, more than half of US school children now qualify for federally subsidized meals, a marker of poverty. The makeup of schools is rapidly changing, and many districts and school boards are at a loss as to how they can effectively and equitably handle these shifts.
Suddenly Diverse is an ethnographic account of two school districts in the Midwest responding to rapidly changing demographics at their schools. It is based on observations and in-depth interviews with school board members and superintendents, as well as staff, community members, and other stakeholders in each one serving “Lakeside,” a predominately working class, conservative community and the other serving “Fairview,” a more affluent, liberal community. Erica O. Turner looks at district leaders’ adoption of business-inspired policy tools and the ultimate successes and failures of such responses. Turner’s findings demonstrate that, despite their intentions to promote “diversity” or eliminate “achievement gaps,” district leaders adopted policies and practices that ultimately perpetuated existing inequalities and advanced new forms of racism.
While suggesting some ways forward, Suddenly Diverse shows that, without changes to these managerial policies and practices and larger transformations to the whole system, even district leaders’ best efforts will continue to undermine the promise of educational equity and the realization of more robust public schools.

Genres: Race, Education, Sociology, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

Published February 12, 2020

Reviews

[Caylie Ratzlaff · Rating 4 out of 5]

read for grad class - EPOL Diversity, Leadership, and Policy BUT I really liked this and found it fascinating and relevant.

[ReadwithXB · Rating 5 out of 5]

First book I read as apart of my Ed.D program and WHAT a way to start. I loved how this book broke down some the key factors and barriers children in color face while getting an education. As a Black girl is predominantly White space, I was pleased to read acknowledgement of what it was like growing up Black in schools.


Loved the way this book introduced me to color bling mangeralism and how this affect our young students. The point of the matter is the system is designed for a lot of Black people to fail, hince why it is systemic. But I would say with the system designed for us to fail, it is a MIRACLE Black people succeed.

10/10! No notes. Well done authors

[Katie Avalos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really valuable information, but really would have benefitted from another pass or two by an editor. So much repetition! The end result reads like a college paper trying to hit a word count rather than a published academic work. If the goal is to reach non-academics, another version that's been thoroughly edited would go a long way toward overall readability.

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

PHENOMENAL book--theoretically rich, engaging, beautiful analysis. Excellent text for those teaching School and Society; Race, Class, and Schooling; Anthropology of Education