'We Have Grown Complacent About Racially Isolated Schools'

This story originally appeared in Education Week.

The causes of violence, whether at the hands of police or private individuals, are obviously complex, even more so for interracial violence. It is healthy for institutions to consider their part in perpetuating or stemming the violence. But it is a mistake to believe that any single institution is solely responsible or can solve the problem on its own.

That said, it seems clear that, as a nation, we have not done nearly enough to teach our children how to look across lines of race and class and see similarities rather than differences—to see themselves and their friends reflected in the faces of others rather than unknown and perhaps unknowable strangers. It seems equally clear that we will continue to fail in this task if our schools remain as racially separated as they are today. As Justice Thurgood Marshall astutely observed in 1974, "Unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever begin to live together."

Schools of education can play a not-so-minor role by doing more to promote integrated schools and prepare students to teach and lead in those schools. Through our research, we can identify obstacles to integration and the most effective ways to remove or avoid those obstacles. Through our teaching, we can intentionally prepare our students to teach and lead in integrated schools, recognizing that it takes work to ensure that diversity is a source of strength rather than division...

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