Chapter 5: Advancing Equity in an integrated, Suburban Community

One of the more perplexing issues in education is the persistence of the racial achievement gap in suburban schools and communities, particularly those that are relatively affluent and have maintained a level of integration in both housing and schooling. When racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps persist in integrated, suburban communities it is often the result of less obvious ways in which advantage and disadvantage is maintain by structural, institutional, and symbolic mechanisms (Diamond, 2006). According to Diamond, “because they live in a racialized society, African American and White students, even in the same schools and communities, navigate a racialized educational terrain” (Diamond, 2006, p. 498). In this racialized educational terrain, multiple forms of disadvantage, both inside and outside the schools shape the experience and access to learning opportunities of students, and these are likely to be played out very differently for Black and White students. Diamond identifies these disadvantages as (1) structural inequalities outside the schools that limit access to resources that can support and enhance learning; (2) institutional patterns inside schools that shape students’ experiences and access to learning opportunities in schools and classrooms; and (3) symbolic, or ideological patterns in schools and society about what constitutes intellectual and cultural capabilities (Diamond, 2006).