Diversity in the Classroom

Abstract

Each day in schools throughout the United States, students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds go into schools pursuing their right to a free and equitable public-school education. Due to the flourishing diversification of the United States, and the expanding immigrant refugee populations, the need for an educational system that provides all students with equal access to success in school is imperative. In urban areas, primarily those with minority and low-socioeconomic status students, continue to fall far behind their suburban white non-low socioeconomic status counterparts in terms of academic achievement. Students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, primarily minority, within urban K12 school districts are struggling to meet the academic expectations in the United States. The authors seek to provide information that informs educators and policy makers on the history of the school system, educational policy and curriculum, and strategies and solutions that assist in closing the achievement gap for students of diverse backgrounds.