How Not to Pick a School

The tragedy is already playing out. The Civil Rights Project has found that 50 years after public schools were desegregated, they've re-segregated to an astonishing degree, even at a time when the nation is more diverse than ever and is heading toward becoming a "majority minority" society within a generation. And, in a recent report, Orfield and his coauthors found that white students are the "most racially isolated group of students" in the country, with the average white student attending a school in which only one in five students is of another race.

Civil Rights Project researchers have found that when white or middle-class parents do send their children to diverse schools, it's often what they call "diversity at a distance" -- the kids are segregated inside the building, in special magnet or "gifted" programs that statistics show are overwhelmingly white and middle class.

"Middle-class white professionals are the people who have the least to worry about, whose kids have the best connections, the greatest chance for opportunity and the best social capital," Orfield said. "And they are most frightened by diversity."

I understand the parent who didn't come to the open house for my kids' school. I was nervous when I began looking at kindergartens, too. And I should have known better. I had been covering Montgomery County schools for The Washington Post for several years, and I knew the research. A colleague and I broke down the county's test scores, and the data revealed that poor kids attending schools in low-income neighborhoods scored far lower than poor kids going to school in middle-class neighborhoods, while middle-class kids scored about the same regardless of the type of school they attended.

Still, when it comes to your child, you want the best. I looked at test scores. I visited public and private schools. I met with parents. I agonized. I also recalled my own upbringing in Portland, Ore., where my parents sent me to Catholic schools. My elementary school included one black family and one Vietnamese family. Everybody in my world -- my school, my church, my neighborhood -- was white, and I knew I didn't want that same environment for my kids.

Then the day came for the kindergarten open house at our neighborhood school. The classroom was bright and colorful, decorated with children's work -- it didn't seem different from those "world class" kindergartens in Montgomery County. The materials were plentiful, and the kids seemed happy and on task. The principal was tough and focused, while the two teachers we met seemed young and dynamic yet experienced enough to know what they were doing. And they both were committed to teaching all kids. "We take them where they are and move them where they need to be," one explained.

We walked out the door feeling light-headed. We didn't have to move. We could send our son to the neighborhood school and know that he was at the best place.

Our son is now in third grade. He reads well above grade level and his test scores are fine. Despite fears that the school would concentrate only on test-taking and on raising the scores of the lowest achievers, his teachers have often left me in awe. I've watched them teach as many as five or six mini-classes at the same time in the same room to reach everyone -- from those learning their letters to the child reading "Harry Potter." I've also watched them enrich the children by putting together a Native American feast, or setting up an Olympic competition after studying ancient Greece or having the children create their own pretend businesses and checking accounts to learn about economics.

Our daughter started kindergarten there this past fall. Both our children have made friends across racial, ethnic and class lines with an ease that I never experienced as a child. And I have come to know people who live in my neighborhood as more than mere faces at the bus stop. The parents who have become invested in the school are energized and involved, and together we're building ties across all that divides us.

Sure, my neighborhood school isn't perfect. And certainly some diverse schools are troubled and disorderly and no child should have to attend them. But when it comes to choosing the right school for your children, the important thing is to get the information, understand the numbers you're looking at and decide for yourself.

You may end up being surprised.

schulteb@washpost.com

Brigid Schulte is a reporter on the Metro staff at The Washington Post.