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SUBURBAN SCHOOLS: Diversity coordinators vent at round-table discussion Page 1 of 4 • TwirtCities+corn Posted on Mon, Oct. 21, 2002 pl(~~TL'~D ~L~ SUBURBAN SCHOOLS: Diversity coordinators vent at round-table discussion The Pioneer Press convened around-table discussion of suburban school district diversity coordinators. Attending the discussion, in addition to local news editors and reporters, were Hamilton Bell, Inver Grove Heights; Tania Chance, White Bear Lake; Dan Forrest, West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan; Lisa McCleod, South Washington County; Joy Mueller, North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale; Tracey Pyscher, Mahtomedi; and Johanna Eager, Roseville. The following is an edited transcript of that discussion: Why do we need diversity coordinators in the suburbs? Tania Chance: To better prepare our students for a changing world. In less than eight years, our population will have no majority - we need to learn how to interact with one another. A lot of the suburbs are predominantly white. Those students don't have opportunities to foster their interaction • skills and learn about other cultures. They'll be at a disadvantage when our new world emerges. Hamilton Bell: If you're a person of color and you happen to work as a diversity coordinator down in the suburban setting, you are a role model, not only for the students of color. You're also a role model for a lot of Caucasian students who never have seen anybody in a leadership role outside of their race. ]oy Mueller: In the last 10 years, North St. Paul enrollment of students of color has increased 203 percent. Our teaching staff is predominantly white. We have five schools out of our 15 schools at over 20 percent of students of color. So we really need to have some great staff development going on for our teachers to understand how to work with students and parents of color so that we can eventually bring that achievement gap together. Dan Forrest: Our picture is very much the same. Ten years ago, we were about 3 percent, now we are very rapidly closing in at 25 percent (students of color). Yet our staff remains well, it's as close to 100 percent as they can get. There's usually a pretty big correlation between students of color and levels of poverty, transience, parents trying to find affordable housing and it tends to be those kinds of issues that are reflected in the test scores, not color. I'm wondering if you're seeing the same kinds of characteristics of students of color in the suburbs as you see the growth or is it different demographics? Lisa McLeod: I know that we have a lot of statistics that say that poverty and economics and things like that play into achievement and so forth but definitely race and ethnicity, that plays a gigantic role in • achievement. Because, statistically, in suburban school districts 80 to 90 percent of the students pass first time. And when those same students of color or "protected-class students," as the state defines http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/living/education/4330425.htm?template=co... 10/21 /2002