{"id":80763,"date":"2024-11-08T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T17:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=80763"},"modified":"2025-12-12T17:37:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T22:37:33","slug":"a-warrior-for-education-equity","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/magazine\/articles\/2024\/a-warrior-for-education-equity\/","title":{"rendered":"A Warrior for Education Equity"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin magazine-block-editorial-leadin is-style-side-by-side has-media has-wider has-flip has-box has-media-focus-center-middle has-primary-theme\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"2100\" height=\"3150\" src=\"\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1.png\" class=\"\" alt=\"Raul Fernandez looking at the camera with a grey t-shirt reading &quot;Educating is Activism&quot;\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1.png 2100w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-400x600.png 400w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-1000x1500.png 1000w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-768x1152.png 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-1024x1536.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-1365x2048.png 1365w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-551x826.png 551w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-229x344.png 229w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-353x529.png 353w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-455x682.png 455w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-688x1032.png 688w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-881x1321.png 881w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-459x688.png 459w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-705x1058.png 705w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-909x1364.png 909w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-1101x1652.png 1101w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-1376x2064.png 1376w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-1761x2642.png 1761w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-011-1-667x1000.png 667w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2100px) 100vw, 2100px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin-caption wp-prepress-component-caption\">Photos by Chris McIntosh<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">School &amp; district leadership<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<strong>A Warrior for Education Equity<\/strong>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">Seventy years after <em>Brown v. Board of Education<\/em>, a new report shows school segregation is on the rise<br>in Massachusetts. Alum and lecturer Raul Fernandez is doing something about it.<br><\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar magazine-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">November 8, 2024<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-comments\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#comments\" class=\"wp-prepress-component-comment-counter label has-no-comments\"><span class=\"wp-prepress-component-comment-counter-zero\"><span>0<\/span><\/span><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/magazine\/authors\/steve-holt\/\">Steve Holt<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p><strong>Racial segregation in America\u2019s public schools feels like something that happened <em>back then<\/em><\/strong><strong>. <\/strong>Back then, Black children were segregated by race into unsafe school buildings\u2014in poorly resourced classrooms with too few desks and secondhand textbooks\u2014that were often inaccessible by public transportation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the US Supreme Court\u2019s landmark 1954 <em>Brown v. Board of Education<\/em> decision ruling racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, states and districts began the long and sometimes messy process of integrating schools. Seven decades after that consequential decision, segregated schools are a thing of the past, a societal sin rightfully put on the trash heap of history. Right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not so, says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/profile\/raul-fernandez\/\">Raul Fernandez<\/a>, a senior lecturer who researches school segregation and taught a new course on the subject this spring. Fernandez chairs a committee for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) that has been studying the issue in the Bay State.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-photoessay magazine-block-editorial-photoessay wp-block-photoessay js-block-editorial-photoessay\"><div class=\"photo-row-full-f\">\n<div class=\"photo-f\"><div class=\"wp-block-photoessay-media\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1500\" src=\"\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-1000x1500.png\" alt=\"Raul Fernandez looking at the camera with a grey t-shirt reading &quot;Educating is Activism&quot; sitting in his office chair\" class=\"wp-image-80770\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-1000x1500.png 1000w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-400x600.png 400w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-768x1152.png 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-1024x1536.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-1365x2048.png 1365w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-551x826.png 551w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-229x344.png 229w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-353x529.png 353w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-455x682.png 455w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-688x1032.png 688w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-881x1321.png 881w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-459x688.png 459w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-705x1058.png 705w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-909x1364.png 909w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-1101x1652.png 1101w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-1376x2064.png 1376w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-1761x2642.png 1761w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2024\/11\/24-1326-WHEELRAUL-004-2-667x1000.png 667w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption><p class=\"wp-block-photoessay-media-caption wp-prepress-component-caption\">The artifacts in Fernandez\u2019s office reflect his own<br>history in New York City\u2019s public schools and as an<br>education activist.<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In a 45-page report published June 4, 2024, the committee, the Racial Imbalance Advisory Council (RIAC), mined publicly available data for evidence of racial segregation in Massachusetts public school districts. It found \u201cpersistent racial segregation\u201d across the commonwealth resulting in \u201cclear and heartbreaking differences between the educational outcomes of students in schools overwhelmingly populated by students of color compared with those overwhelmingly populated by white students,\u201d says Fernandez (COM\u201900, Wheelock\u201916).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notably, the report found a chasm between the success of \u201cintensely segregated white schools\u201d and \u201cintensely segregated non-white schools.\u201d Under DESE\u2019s assessment of educational outcomes, largely white schools had an average score of 66.32 percent student achievement, while largely non-white schools averaged 18.72 percent\u2014a 48-point gap. Nationally, the share of public schools with student bodies that are more than 90 percent white has risen from around 7 percent in 1988 to nearly 20 percent in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Racial imbalance manifests in two main ways, according to Fernandez: When the majority of students in a school or district are of one race, which he says inherently deprives students of a diversity of experiences and viewpoints; and when students of color are clustered together in failing or underresourced schools, which Fernandez calls \u201cpernicious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs our analysis of DESE data shows, this form of \u2018double segregation\u2019 correlates with large gaps in test scores, chronic absenteeism, graduation rates, college matriculation, and more,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-bu-pullquote magazine-block-bu-pullquote has-image-focus-center-middle has-light-theme has-primary-theme-text\"><div class=\"wp-block-bu-pullquote-inner\"><figure><\/figure><blockquote><div class=\"container-lockup\"><div class=\"container-icon-outer\"><div class=\"container-icon-inner\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"container-text\"><hr\/><div class=\"quote-sizing\">\u201cTHIS IS THE FIRST REPORT IN A GENERATION ON SCHOOL SEGREGATION IN MASSACHUSETTS, AND I THINK THERE\u2019S GOING TO BE A LOT OF INTEREST IN IT.\u201d<\/div><footer class=\"caption\">Raul Fernandez<\/footer><hr\/><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>A Two-Tiered System<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In the <em>Brown<\/em> decision, the US Supreme Court ruled that segregating public schools based on race is unconstitutional, even if segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. In a separate ruling a year later, the high court ordered states to desegregate \u201cwith all deliberate speed,\u201d but it did not spell out <em>how<\/em> to do so. The result was outright resistance in parts of the southern United States and poorly implemented desegregation efforts elsewhere.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notably, the Massachusetts legislature passed the Racial Imbalance Act in 1965, ordering the state\u2019s public schools to desegregate. But it would take nearly two decades for the city of Boston to make noticeable progress in desegregating its schools\u2014and not without a federal court order and a sloppily rolled out plan that involved Black and white kids being bused to schools far from their homes. The program resulted in daily protests and violence. Meanwhile, white parents pulled their kids out of Boston schools en masse, nearly cutting in half student enrollment during the busing years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Decades later, Fernandez, curious about the education journey of BU undergraduates, conducted an informal poll among members of a Latinx student group and found that all but a handful of the 50 or so participants had attended well-resourced, largely white high schools. Fernandez wanted to know why the Latinx students who attended majority white schools had better academic outcomes, so he embarked on a deep dive at BU Wheelock into the presence of racial imbalance and segregation in public schools today. He found that decades after <em>Brown<\/em>, many K\u201312 school districts remain racially segregated, with Black and brown students often concentrated in underresourced and underperforming schools. Meanwhile, white students have, on average, the least access to racially diverse peers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In spring 2024, Fernandez parlayed his research into School Segregation (WED AP 654), a BU Wheelock course that explores what he calls \u201cone of the most intractable issues in education.\u201d The course surveys the history and current state of school segregation, with case studies coming from Boston and New York City. \u201cCreating this course is without question the thing I\u2019m most proud of during my time on faculty at BU,\u201d Fernandez says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fernandez\u2019s exploration of school segregation has led to a position advising state education leaders on matters of race and equity. Under Fernandez\u2019s leadership, RIAC\u2014which formed in response to desegregation efforts in the 1970s\u2014focuses on curbing racial imbalance and segregation in schools.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RIAC\u2019s June report found that more than 225,000 Massachusetts students\u201490 percent of them Latinx or Black\u2014languish at substandard, segregated schools. Segregated non-white schools have higher levels of suspensions and chronic absenteeism, and lower graduation rates and test scores.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of the committee\u2019s recommended actions involve better oversight and compliance from DESE and its Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which Fernandez says has allowed segregation to fester in Massachusetts schools for too long. Recommendations include DESE coming into compliance with existing laws around racial imbalance, working with the legislature to review and update outdated laws, and collecting more data on segregation and making it publicly accessible. RIAC also calls on the legislature to unlock \u201csubstantial funding\u201d in the budget for integration efforts in Massachusetts schools. Other recommendations include requiring school districts to conduct racial imbalance analyses prior to closing, building, or relocating a school and allowing students attending racially imbalanced or isolated schools to transfer to another school in the district.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fernandez is hopeful that the report will ultimately lead to less segregated schools in Massachusetts. The path to those changes, however, could get bumpy, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is the first report in a generation on school segregation in Massachusetts, and I think there\u2019s going to be a lot of interest in it,\u201d Fernandez says. \u201cFrankly, based on the data that we\u2019ve already seen, potentially lawsuits will come out of it. In New Jersey and Minnesota, there have been cases recently where the courts have found [these states and their districts allowing] unconstitutional segregation. I think that\u2019s going to be some of the outcome of the work of RIAC, or the state will figure out how to intervene before this happens.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Racial segregation in America\u2019s public schools feels like something that happened back then. Back then, Black children were segregated by race into unsafe school buildings\u2014in poorly resourced classrooms with too few desks and secondhand textbooks\u2014that were often inaccessible by public transportation.\u00a0 Following the US Supreme Court\u2019s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ruling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20791,"featured_media":80766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"School & district leadership","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[4055],"bu-publication":[6613],"magazine-article-category":[6620,6813,6810],"magazine-topic":[6938],"news-article-category":[],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[7093],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/80763"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20791"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80763"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/80763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86211,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/80763\/revisions\/86211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80763"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=80763"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=80763"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=80763"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=80763"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=80763"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=80763"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=80763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}