Segregation, Diversity, and Pathology: School Quality and Student Demographics in Gentrifying New York

Abstract

Discussions of school integration often contrast the perceived deficits of segregated schools with the perceived strengths of schools with diverse student bodies. In this study, I examine the relationships that school community members infer between student demographics and school quality in diversifying areas of New York City. I use portraits of three New Yorkers to examine the ways that school community members reluctantly re-inscribe the stigma associated with segregated schools, assuming that the best way to improve a school is to increase its diversity. These braided discourses of pathology and diversity call into question the extent to which advocacy for integration advances the goals of educational justice.