In 1968, Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) made headlines for their two-way busing plan to fully integrate their schools, starting in elementary schools. For the majority of the students, it was the first time they wouldn’t be going to their neighborhood school. The kids from the flats, who were predominantly from low-income families and the majority of whom were Black, would ride up to the hills, a Berkeley Public Schools article states. According to the article, the kids in the hills, who were mostly white and wealthier, would go down to South and West Berkeley schools.
According to Elianne de la Vega, a Berkeley High School (BHS) alumni who attended Berkeley from 1966-1969, when the initial integration plan began, the nation was buzzing. The teachers and students all knew they were part of something huge.
“We had nothing really negative to say about integration in the sense that we all knew it was something that should happen… we felt like we were all part of this movement, you know, this incredible progressive movement that would finally begin to break down this terrible system of racial discrimination, or racial hatred, or fear,” de la Vega said.
But according to de la Vega, while all students were in the same building, they weren’t in the same classes. Even after the integration push, students were still segregated on the basis of “academic ability.” Incidentally, she added, all the white kids were in the highest classes.
“I don't think that the classes were segregated because of race per se, but they were segregated, because of supposed academic ability… (to change that) you'd have to raise the academic performance of (disadvantaged) children before they ever stepped into Berkeley High,” de la Vega said.
“Berkeley kind of put its foot down and said, our value is no matter what neighborhood you live in, you’re going to be in school with kids that are from your neighborhood and kids that are not from your neighborhood,” Hasmig Minassian, an Ethnic Studies teacher at BHS, said.
BUSD’s integration process fully combined all the children in middle and elementary schools. But according to Minassian, when they got to high school self-scheduling and small schools were involved, and the demographics changed. “It’s a pretty natural instinct. Kids still really want to be with their people. The problem (isn’t) having all Black spaces. The problem is that the resources went to the all white spaces,” Minassian said.
“Kids still commuted with their friends from home, and socialized on campus with friends from home, so integration only went so far… many of us thought it was a bit idealistic of the adults in town to expect so much from school integration when the home ownership remained highly segregated,” Michael Markowitz, a BHS alum from the class of 1977, said.
According to Minassian, part of the origins of the universal 9th grade program at BHS was an attempt to return to a place where everybody was educated in the same classroom, alongside efforts to increase attendance and decrease the school’s achievement gap. In the universal 9th grade, Minassian explained, each hive is demographically exactly the same.
When choice comes back into play with the small schools, Minassian added, then segregation once again appears. “You can’t have choice and complete desegregation…everyone wants diverse classrooms, but you can’t force kids to be integrated,” Minassian said. BUSD’s Senior Communications Officer Trish McDermott was not able to respond to requests for a statement.
Minassian believes the Ethnic Studies discussions she leads and listens to wouldn’t be possible without a mixed group of ethnicities, experiences, and socioeconomic classes. “How else are you going to learn from people if you’re not in a diverse environment? To me, an integrated ethnic studies class is the only way to grow your brain,” Minassian said.
Kyree Kirkland, a senior, became aware of the difference in class environment after he moved here at the start of the school year from Georgia. “Back in my old school, it was predominantly white. In a more diverse community like BHS, I can connect and relate to students. I can feel more comfortable in a classroom,” Kirkland said.
BUSD has continued their efforts in the 50+ years since the initial busing plan to go past desegregation and arrive at racial equity. Introduced in 2008, the ‘2020 Vision for Berkeley’s Children and Youth’ is a city-wide partnership that’s set to eliminate the racial predictability of outcomes in Berkeley’s youth, such as health and academic success, as described by its page on the Berkeley Public Schools website. The program involves BUSD, Berkeley City College, UC Berkeley, and the City of Berkeley. It strives to have all children learn how to read proficiently by 3rd grade, have high attendance rates and graduate high school ready for college.
In 2018, Dee Williams Ridley, then city manager, released a report to show the progress of 2020 Vision. The report described the resulting achievements for African American and Latinx students, showing these students having “notable improvements” in kindergarten readiness and school attendance. For instance, the data showed that in the time between 2014 and 2018, 3rd grade reading proficiency rose for black students by over 20%, and for Hispanic and Latinx students by over 25%.
And yet over 50 years after desegregation, the racial and ethnic achievement gaps in BUSD are some of the largest in the nation, according to Stanford University’s Center for Education Policy Analysis. Even with the immense efforts and resources the district has put into bridging the gap, there is always more work to be done.
“Integration is so complicated. You want a space that kids can go to where they feel like they're with their people, and then you want spaces where people are going, where they feel a little uncomfortable, you know, and have to learn and grow through that,” Minassian said. She added that, in AP Language classes when students are speaking their native tongue, “they're totally killing it in a class where they feel welcome, they feel smart, they feel like somebody cares about their long term success... it's not just one solution, it's a bunch of things, but so much of it has to do with the vibe.”