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Central Standard

Diverse And Achieving Schools: Where Are They And Are They Worth It?

Michael Petrilli

Often parents seeking to give their children an education filled with diverse racial and socioeconomic peers struggle to find schools that are also high-achieving.  Michael Petrilli and Dr. Lawson Bush give insights into overcoming this sometimes daunting challenge and the varying merits behind its thinking.

More than 87% of white students attend majority-white schools, even though they make up just over 50% of the U.S public school population.  Just 14% of white students attend "multicultural" schools--those where three racial groups make up at least 10% of the population.  But as the nation and world becomes increasingly more connected and diverse the long-term completive prospects for children educated in these circumstances becomes questionable.

Michael Petrilli​, athour of The Diverse Schools Dilemma: A Parent's Guid to Socioeconomically Mixed Public Schools joins Jabulani and you to explore the reasons to consider a divers public school and addresses how to go about finding the right one for your child.  Petrilli is joined Dr. Lawson Bush professor of Urban Educational Leadership at California State University, Los Angeles and author of Can Black Mothers Raise Our Sons.

Please share with us your experience in diverse public schools or your school search experience--Email, TwitterFacebook or comment below.

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Matthew Long-Middleton has been a talk-show producer, community producer, Media Training Manager and now the Community Engagement Manager at KCUR. You can reach him at Matthew@kcur.org, or on Twitter @MLMIndustries.
As senior producer of Up To Date, I want our listeners to hear familiar and new voices that shine light on the issues and challenges facing the myriad communities KCUR serves, and to expose our audiences to the wonderful and the creative in the Kansas City area. Just as important to me is an obligation to mentor the next generation of producers to ensure that the important conversations continue. Reach me at alexanderdk@kcur.org.