Loudest voices and unequal opportunities in the suburbs: A conversation with John B. Diamond

Abstract

Within racially diverse suburban high schools, an opportunity exists. Black and Latinx students do not do as well as their white peers, even as the school overall performs well. Brown sociology professor John B. Diamond has studied this phenomenon and attributes the gap to several factors, including implicit bias among teachers and administrators, and the oversized influence of white parents trying to get advantages for their children. In his book, Despite the Best Intentions: How Inequality Thrives in Good Schools, with his coauthor Amanda Lewis, they interview students, teachers, parents, administrators, and community members in a diverse suburban high school. In this Kappan interview, he discusses their research and how educators can disrupt the inequities in schools and districts.