Students arrive at North Community High in Minneapolis on Nov. 22, 2021. The New York Times has an article byAndrea Ellen Reed.
When she heard that Minneapolis was going to integrate its schools, she looked around and thought about all the people who would be affected.
The hallways at North Community High are made of blue and white. The curriculum was updated to make it easier to take advanced placement courses. There was a radio studio on the first floor.
Friestleben, the principal, was skeptical in some phone conversations with potential new families.
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Friestleben, who identifies as Black, knew that her school had challenges. She was working hard to serve the needs of her students and had little interest in adjusting her focus to woo white families.
She said it was degrading and humiliating.
Minneapolis, which has one of the widest racial academic gaps in the country, is in the midst of a sweeping plan to integrate its schools. Minneapolis officials are asking white families to help integrate their schools, which is a different approach than previous efforts which typically required children of color to travel to white schools.
Eric Moore, senior officer for accountability, research and equity for Minneapolis Public Schools, said that everyone wants equity as long as it doesn't cause any problems.
One of the main reasons that America's education system is so bad is that it is so different.
The dream of integration has not changed since Brown v. Board of Education.
2 in 5 black and Latino students in the US attend schools where more than 90 percent of the students are children of color, while 1 in 5 white students attend a school where less than 90 percent of the students look like them, according to the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank.
Minneapolis, which became the epicenter of the nation's reckoning with racism after George Floyd's murder last year, is a likely candidate for an integration plan. The city is a bastion of liberalism with a voting population that supported President Joe Biden by 80 percentage points or more.
Even in a city with the political will to make it happen, an up close look at one school shows the complicated realities of school integration.
Integration never comes up for many black families.
Since arriving at North High, Friestleben has not thought about integration.
The students who already walked her halls were mostly low-income and working-class, and about 90 percent Black and nearly 100% of color.
Every child that walks into any of the doors that I lead will feel like royalty, said Friestleben, who personally greets students at the doors each morning.
She said that society subconsciously rolled the red carpet out for white children. My honor and challenge is to do that for Black children.
Integration can deliver benefits for all children.
Black children who were exposed to desegregation experienced higher educational achievement, higher annual earnings as adults, a lower likelihood of incarceration and better health outcomes according to longitudinal work by economist Rucker Johnson of the University of California, Berkeley. The gains did not affect the educational achievement of white students.
Research has shown that schools that are racially and economically diverse can benefit all students.
A recent paper analyzed all public school districts and found that racially divided schools tend to focus students of color in high poverty environments.
Sean Reardon, the lead author on the paper and the director of the Educational Opportunity Project, said that there is not a single school district in the U.S. that does not have a large achievement gap.
In Minneapolis, the situation is very stark. The district of 30,500 students is made up of 42% white, 35% black, 14% Hispanic, 5% Asian and 4% Native American.
White students test four to five grade levels ahead of Black, Hispanic and Native students, and two and a half grade levels ahead of Asian students.
The inequalities are reflected in North High.
More than half of 10th graders did not meet state standards in reading in the year, and more than 80% of 11th graders did not meet state standards in math.
It has been a problem. Families of color on the north side have disenrolled from Minneapolis Public Schools over the years.
Minneapolis school officials decided to make a change. They assigned families to new school zones to take into account racial diversity.
Magnet schools were moved from whiter neighborhoods to more diverse, centralized locations.
The changes were projected to give more resources to the schools.
Activists and researchers say that the most powerful promise of integration is shared resources.
Most students and families at North High had not been asking for integration. They liked their school a lot.
The families at North High have been requesting more investment for a long time.
The school building is decades old. There have been problems with the drinking water. At one point, there was a threat to close.
There have been positive changes in recent years.
The school has a great principal. The offerings now include nine AP courses. There is talk of a multimillion dollar renovation.
Kelly Jackson wants more for the students.
The president of the parent-teacher association sent her three children to North High.
Jackson asked: Why now?
Jackson said that they want to start implementing the things because they are getting white students. A lot of white families fight for it, they want it, and they get it. Why does it take so long?
White families are faced with a decision.
The new school plan didn't go well for white and more affluent parents.
New families attending North High felt like a big risk.
Southwest High is a majority white public school that is a 10-minute bus ride from their home, and that's what Heather was going to send her daughter to.
The school has an international baccalaureate program, as well as a Japanese program. The older brother is a senior there, and the children were supposed to attend together.
Her son and daughter attended Southwest High and she wanted them to attend North High. One language is offered by North High.
She was worried about transportation. The commute could take up to 55 minutes. She would have to walk from the bus stop to the school because of the frequent gun shots.
There was little room to explore her concerns without being misinterpreted or offending other families. The conversations on the Facebook page turned tense.
The family decided to send their child to a top rated school. About 80% of students are white and 4% are economically disadvantaged.
The high school years of her daughter were too high stakes to experiment with. She said that her motivation was to get the best education she could for her child and have her launch into the world as successfully as she can.
There are a few new students.
The number of racially isolated schools in Minneapolis was reduced to 13 from 21 by the start of the school year.
North High wasn't among them. 30 of the students are white.
Moore said he expected better. I'm also being pragmatic.
The plan has critics. Some people argue that the district did not put the onus on white families and that most students were children of color. The officials said the burden was shared.
Critics say that district officials created controversy while not doing enough to improve schools. Some schools are more diverse than others.
The district has been at the center of a lawsuit accusing the state of allowing school segregation.
The stage for change could be set by a tentative settlement.
The plan is designed to get at the crux of the problem: the divide between school districts.
There are a few new white parents at North High. She decided to send her son to the school because she saw a culture of high expectations and happy students.
The transition has not been perfect.
Harp makes suggestions at the meetings. She tries to stay quiet more than is natural for her.
She can speak up sometimes, like after a shooting near the school. She wondered why the district didn't contact parents directly.
Jackson said that this is what we live with every day.
Friestleben's goal has been to build a school that helps children of color.
She said that white families are welcome in that environment. She is undeterred if they can't see what she sees.
She said that anyone else would not be allowed to be our validators or invalidators.
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