DREAM TOWN

A study of the complexities of school integration.

Award-winning educational journalist Meckler, a national education writer for the Washington Post, makes her book debut with a thorough examination of the school system of Shaker Heights, Ohio, which for the last 70 years has been committed to fostering diversity. However, despite a “decades-long, nationally recognized track record of racial integration,” it has also experienced “a persistent achievement gap in education.” Black students, writes the author, “were doing worse even though they were taking easier classes. The higher the level, the whiter the class. Ninety-five percent of students in the lowest level were Black, and in Advanced Placement, the top level, just 12 percent of students were.” Herself a product of the Shaker Heights school system, Meckler augments her own experiences with more than 250 interviews, on-site visits, and research in school and community archives to tackle the question of why this gap persists. For a community intent on diversity, housing integration posed the first obstacle: Banks and realtors tried to block Blacks from buying homes in the once all-White neighborhoods; when Blacks did move in, those same institutions tried to incite whites to flee. In 1957, the Ludlow Community Association formed with the explicit goal of maintaining the viability of a community open to all races and religions, and a funding initiative offered mortgage assistance to families. Meckler focuses each chapter on an individual—student, parent, school board member, administrator, teacher—whose experiences elucidate how the schools evolved to meet myriad challenges. One strategy with mixed consequences was busing students into and out of Black and white neighborhood schools. Still, the achievement gap persisted, raising concerns: “What happens,” for example, “when some kids can stay after school and play on the playground, fostering friendships while their parents trade gossip and news about the school—and others can’t?” Meckler applauds the community’s values while honestly revealing its pressures and problems.

A detailed, incisive portrait of a community’s shared quest.