New York City isn’t known as a vibrant melting pot for nothing; the rich diversity of our population is the bedrock of our city. But while many of the city’s neighborhoods are becoming more integrated, our public schools still lag behind on this important issue — and studies have shown that lack of diversity in classrooms shortchanges our students, particularly those who are black and Latino.

Educators at the city’s eight specialized high schools are among those lobbying to bring about positive change. These schools, including Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech, are renowned for regularly sending their students to Ivy League universities. Their admissions for the 2016–17 school year, announced in March, show that only 4 percent of total admission offers went to African-American students and 6 percent went to Hispanic students. That’s a dramatically small number compared with the admission offers that went to Asian and white students: 54 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

Improving diversity in our classrooms helps everyone. In this issue of the New York Teacher, our Insight column [page 7] discusses the growing body of evidence that the benefits of integrated classrooms “flow in all directions,” as the authors of one report put it, leading to greater creativity, more curiosity and better decision-making for all students. 

Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña has said she is looking for “organic” solutions to the problem, not a top-down edict, and dismissed the idea of school rezoning to promote diversity. Many educators are haunted by the busing battles of the 1970s, which they recall as a failure. But nothing could be further from the truth: It was during the peak years of integration in the 1980s that the racial achievement gap narrowed, only to widen again when that approach was abandoned. 

One strategy is to get students into integrated classes in the early grades. A pilot program in seven elementary schools is already showing results. The city Department of Education gave those schools permission to use family income and English language ability in admissions. Almost all of the schools met their goals of enrolling 40 percent or more of students from more diverse racial and economic backgrounds. 

It’s a good beginning, but not nearly enough. If the city is to be a leader on this issue, it cannot wait for schools and communities to do the right thing. Segregation hurts all of our students.