Race At Masterman: "It's Not Easy To Address"

Most experts recognize that racial diversity is beneficial to the community as a whole, and that for minority groups to feel welcomed at any school they need to be able to find a community of their own. Ahtziri Cruz Batista (12-1), a first-generation Mexican American, admits that it was difficult for her to transition from her elementary school to middle school at Masterman. She says, “At my elementary school it was mainly Asian, Latino, and black students and there were barely any white people. Here, the majority of my peers are white so it’s very different.” She maintains, “If you have a community, you feel like you belong and like you’re a part of something bigger. For me I felt like, ‘Did they accept me just because I was the only Mexican student?’”

Students like Ahtziri and Brandon take pride in what they have done to bolster cultural communities at Masterman. It is Brandon’s second year as a co-president of the African American Cultural Committee (AACC), and his current co-president is Madison Tyler (12-4). In the weekly meetings, high schoolers participate in thought-provoking discussions regarding current events, police brutality, systemic racism, as well as broader issues that the black community faces both in and out of school. Likewise, they celebrate African American culture. Brandon is also a co-founder and student chair of the United Minority Council, an organization that plans to launch near the end of February with Taryn Flaherty (11-1), and which has received the support of numerous staff and faculty members.

Ahtziri is the president of the Hispanic or Latinx Association (HOLA), and she aims to make the organization a more involved presence in the school. She mentions the group’s focus on “talking about the Latin American world, current events, what's going on in different countries, and how that affects the Latinx community,” and elaborates on their fundraising efforts for Sueños. Sueños is a community program in Guatemala that a group of more than 25 Masterman students visited over the past summer; it was founded by Masterman alumna Katie Korsyn, Class of 2008. HOLA has collaborated with AACC to create HAMS, the Hispanic and African American Committee for Middle School, in order to involve their younger peers as well.

Brandon is the co-founder of HAMS, and he has also maintained a role as president of the club for two years. In describing his personal middle school experience, he says, “I didn’t have anyone to talk to about [racial issues] besides Ms. Parker, [and] Ms. Parker’s not even here anymore.“ Ahtziri agrees on this matter. She affirms, “the main problem is the lack of diversity in the faculty; I know if I had seen a Latino teacher then I probably would have felt I could approach them and they would understand me.” In a group of about 15, the mentors of HAMS plan lessons for roughly 30 7th and 8th grade students. Brandon explains, “I wanted to have that community where you can embrace and learn about your culture… we do activities like, ‘investing in your future.’ We have guest speakers, we go out to different places and get them to be reflective of what they can do to end up in the best place possible; what they can do to utilize their skills and not let the problems they are facing affect them.”

Faith Applegate (11-1) is a Vietnamese-Caucasian HAMS mentor who confirms that it is an imperative goal for the HAMS facilitating team to motivate students in the club to apply for and accept positions at Masterman’s high school. Concerning her ideas for encouraging more minority groups to apply for the fifth grade, Faith opines that there should be, “more opportunities and resources for minorities” from an early age. She says that higher standardized test scores inevitably come from, “students with more privilege, who have the time and resources to practice for the tests, as well as the support they need to succeed.” She strongly believes that a student’s academic excellence can improve over time and it is vital for all schools, not only Masterman, to consider implementing the principles of affirmative action to their admission process. Others point out that there are plenty of qualified minority applicants in the city who have the test scores and the support needed to succeed, but that Masterman must actively recruit these students in order to assure a truly diverse school. Some, who note that they think Masterman has become less diverse than it used to be, believe that with the expansion of charter schools in recent years, students of color have decided to attend schools closer to them, where they remain for middle school.

Faith is also a member of ACA, the Asian Cultural Association. She states, “In ACA we recognize that Asians are a larger group at Masterman, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still inequality. Sometimes there’s still a lot of stereotyping and slurs thrown around. ACA is supposed to be an environment where we can talk about these issues, address them, and not invalidate people’s experiences just because we’re ‘not the smallest minority,’ because there is still a lot of silencing of the Asian-American community.”

Even though organizations such as ACA and HAMS strive to welcome minority students, there are still some who don’t feel seen. Engels Ferrer (12-1) is a Vietnamese-Dominican who says he is “one of two people” who identifies as Hispanic in his grade. Engels is not involved in any racially specific clubs at school, and he explains, “it’s mostly because I’ve had problems with identity my whole life. I’ve always felt, even in middle and throughout high school, that I wouldn’t be comfortable joining things like ACA even though I like the idea because I don’t look Vietnamese at all, but I speak Vietnamese… I would just feel weird being there. It’s the same with HOLA, I don’t speak Spanish even though I look Dominican and in that community I don’t think I could really feel like I’m part of that culture.” Engels agrees with Faith in his belief that racial diversity in selective schools such as Masterman is directly influenced by elementary education. He asserts, “in a perfect world, things like affirmative action shouldn’t need to exist because kids should be getting equal education everywhere… It’s very unfortunate that a lot of those who have so much potential aren’t given the chance.”

The administration at Masterman recognizes these complications, and has collaborated with Stepping Stones, a community organization that offers academic support and guidance for underrepresented elementary school students. Masterman has been active with encouraging young students to improve their schoolwork in order to qualify for admission, as well as referring those who are struggling to the arrangements facilitated by Stepping Stones, such as a Saturday program called Honors Edge. Applications for Masterman's fifth grade do not include gender or race; they only indicate standardized test scores, grades, and attendance. Ms. Brown, Masterman’s current principal, emphasizes, “class is something that needs to be discussed… When there’s large groups of people of color in poverty, you get what we have today: a divide where many poor children of color in neighborhood schools have a lack of access.”

Several years ago, Masterman began a diversity committee in the School Advisory Council (SAC), and one of their main focuses was to enhance the diversity of the faculty. Currently, they continue to communicate with the School District as well as Graduate Schools of Education to find potential staff members according to available positions. Last year, three new teachers were hired, two of whom were women of color. Still, the majority of Masterman’s educators are white, and Ms. Brown believes it is essential for them to understand racial issues the students might be confronting in order to optimize their learning experiences and create a safe environment. She explains, “In professional development, we’ve been working with staff around cultural sensitivity in the classroom… so that [teachers] understand white privilege, for example, and the implications for their classroom… white privilege is real, and everyone’s at different levels of understanding it. I think you have to be willing to look at yourself and at your own bias.” Various teachers at Masterman indicated that they believed the professional development offered was important but could be improved, with some noting that being white does not necessarily mean that a teacher is insensitive to the individual needs of all of his or her students. As one teacher, who preferred to remain anonymous, shared, “Years, or in some cases, decades, of teaching experience, do not happen without valuable observations, lessons, and insights. There are many teachers at Masterman who have dedicated themselves [to this issue] and care deeply.” Other teachers added that they agreed the conversation was important, but they thought it could be continued in other, better, ways.

Ms. Marcus, one of the three school counselors, has been avidly working to make the school’s racial composition representative of the city’s diversity. She describes, “I had the idea to try to visit schools and recruit kids from all over the city and from every single zip code, but it didn’t end up quite working out. Instead, I made phone calls to about 40 different schools that we don’t normally get students from, just to talk to those counselors so they can encourage the students who meet the criteria for Masterman to apply and talk about the admission process with them… we never get as many as we would like, but it was a big step forward.” Other faculty members have tried to make families of potential students feel more welcomed. In one instance, Ms. Diffenderfer, a Spanish teacher, suggested involving translators in the school’s open house experience. Masterman obtained translators in five to six different languages who held clear signs to specify their respective languages during the tours so that families would feel more welcome and comfortable applying to the middle school.

Ms. Marcus feels it is necessary to assert that “when students are accepted from eighth grade into the high school, sometimes there are students who have been accepted, but they choose to go other places. Sometimes it’s not that we’re only choosing certain students, it’s that some of them simply don’t decide to go. It’s a very mult-faceted issue; it’s not easy to address.” Brandon recounts that, in his transition into high school, he observed that “at least half the black population of the grade” transferred to a different school. He reveals, “In my opinion, these students are leaving because they think Masterman is just pretentious white kids, it’s not for them, There was a time where I was under the same impression. Masterman isn’t a perfect community, but we have all the necessary tools and a willingness to truly create a multicultural community for every group of students... so everyone can experience what is possibly the best education in the city."