What impact has the interdistrict program had on diversity and race in education?
Ellerman: It has made a difference for students in the program — in terms of kids making friends outside of their neighborhoods and their own racial circle of friends. At the same time, students at county schools wouldn’t have been exposed to (much) racial diversity because many county schools have minority populations of 3 to 5 percent. So, both the nonblack families in the county and the black families in the city benefited from that. If you look at the students in the program and teachers who otherwise wouldn’t have had minority students, their attitudes certainly have changed, improved, become more inclusive from a diversity standpoint.
