In my heart of hearts, I do believe that the teachers and the building administration at NRHS are doing their best to diminish educational inequality at our school.  In the English department, we have changed our admissions process for AP and Honors classes, and as a result, we have a greater number of minority students in those classes.  In addition, I have been on several hiring committees during my time at NRHS.  We interviewed many candidates and are proactively looking for diverse teachers.  For whatever reasons, however, the vast majority of people who go into teaching tend to be white females.  This is a serious problem and goes beyond NRHS.  I believe that more needs to be done to attract minorities to teacher education programs.  In the US, we have a severe lack of qualified teachers in general.  Sadly, it's not a profession that many people are particularly interested in.

 

In terms of what we can do to make education more equitable, I compare NRHS to Mamaroneck High School where my children go, and to Rye High School where I did my student teaching.  These are wealthier (and whiter) school districts, and it is in these comparisons that I really see inequalities.  New Rochelle class sizes are MUCH higher.  I can only speak as an English teacher, but English teachers at Rye teach about 80-100 students and those at Mamaroneck teach 100-110.  In my time at NRHS, I have always had 130-150.  As you can imagine, as a result, our students don't get the personalized writing instruction they need or as many opportunities to write because the workload for English teachers is truly unsustainable.  To me, this is the most important issue.  Whatever can be done at NRHS to reduce class sizes and reduce the student loads that guidance counselors carry, would be a huge step towards improving educational equality.

 

I really do believe New Rochelle is doing it's best for all its students of all races, religions, genders, and socioeconomic backgrounds.  The real inequality is that students in less wealthy districts with higher percentages of minority students do not get the same quality of education as their peers in wealthier and majority white schools. 

 

Those are just my thoughts. 

 

Best,

​

English Teacher

New Rochelle High School