Policy Actions to Promote Racial, Ethnic, and Economic Diversity in Schools The federal government should assign preferences to grants for states and districts which can demonstrate that they have developed or begun to implement meaningful strategies to increase diversity, including promoting more diversity of charter schools. The federal government should, in the reauthorization of ESEA, permit students attending the lowest performing schools to have broader choices for transferring, including inter-district State legislatures and education agencies should develop processes and guidelines that will enable students to transfer across district lines to attend high performing diverse schools. State education agencies should develop access plans – and seek funding– that will permit students who obtain an inter-district transfer to attend school without incurring transportation costs.
Action Steps for Advocates Partner with other advocates, including parents and civil rights organizations, to demand that state and local education agencies report annually on racial, ethnic and economic disparities in their systems and on measures they have been implemented to address those disparities. Develop and propose to state and local education authorities, transfer policies that facilitate and support the attendance of disadvantaged students at high-performing schools. Determine parental support for these policies and organize parents and other community members to drive this policy change. Request that your local school board or city council convene hearings on school diversity and include advocates and officials from other jurisdictions to speak about alternative and proven strategies that have provided greater diversity in their systems.
2020 Vision Roadmap: A Pre-K Through Postsecondary Blueprint for Educational Success
transfer.
Pitch stories to local news media about the effect of the lack of diversity on specific schools and the students in them. Use personal stories and testimonials when possible. Learn how to file an education discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Education.
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