Unequal Lessons

School Diversity and Educational Inequality in New York City

Alexandra Freidus

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9781479827817
• eBook ISBN:
  9781479827824
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Educational Policy
• Index: Social Sciences

Diversity and racial integration efforts are not sufficient to address educational inequality

New York City schools are among the most segregated in the nation. Yet over seven decades after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, New Yorkers continue to argue about whether school segregation matters. Amid these debates, Alexandra Freidus dives deep into the roots of racial inequality in diversifying schools, asking how we can better understand both the opportunities and the limits of school diversity and integration.

Unequal Lessons is based on six years of observations and interviews with children, parents, educators, and district policymakers about the stakes of racial diversity in New York City schools. The book examines what children learn from diversity, exploring both the costs and benefits of school integration. By drawing on students' first-hand experiences, Freidus makes the case that although a focus on diversity offers many benefits to students, it often reinscribes, rather than diminishes, existing inequalities in school policy and practice. The idea of diversity for its own sake is frequently seen as the solution, with students of color presumed to benefit from their experiences with white students, while schools fail to address structural inequality. Though educators and advocates often focus on diversity out of a real desire to make a positive difference in students' lives, this book makes clear the gaps between good intentions and educational injustice.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction: “There Is No Magic” in Diversity
• 1. “We Weren’t Special to Him”: Whiteness and Potential Diversity in New York City Schools
• 2. Problem Children and Children with Problems: Learning from Diversity at P.S. 411
• 3. What Is Taught and What Is Learned: Lessons from an Antiracist, Integrating Middle School
• 4. “A True History of America”: Civic Learning through Youth Organizing for School Integration
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix: Methodological Reflections
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author