I have devoted one body of work to the impact of demographic change on schools in gentrifying areas of New York City, one of the country’s most segregated school systems. This series of papers complicates widely-held but often under-examined assumptions about the benefits of school diversity.

Amid widespread claims that increased racial and socioeconomic diversity yields greater educational equity, research on what happens within the classrooms (rather than PTA or staff meetings) of gentrifying schools is surprisingly scarce. In one line of inquiry, I examine what is taught and what is learned through the hidden curriculum of diversifying schools. In papers focused on teaching and learning in diversifying schools, I look closely at the role whiteness plays in curriculum, academic sorting, and school discipline processes.

Another line of inquiry examines the social and political contexts of these classrooms, focusing on the complicated relationship between school gentrification and educational equity. These papers trace the braided discourses of diversity and pathology that mark debates over school demographics and examine the hopes and fears that school community members bring to diversifying schools in gentrifying communities.

Overall, these studies demonstrate that shifts in school demographics and even a commitment to equity are not sufficient to address racialized patterns of inequitable academic and discipline outcomes. I illustrate the need for expanded, nuanced examinations of how educators and policymakers can address racialized disparities in school outcomes.