confronting institutional racism.

Institutional racism can be difficult to overcome. But if you are committed to change, there is plenty you can do. Here are six strategies for addressing racial inequalities in our schools.

Do the best schools and classes have the fewest black and brown students? Observation seems to confirm that race plays a role in the way our schools and classrooms are organized. You can look inside a school and simply compare the faces of those sitting in the Advanced Placement classes with those in the remedial courses. Or, take a look at any two schools -- one in the inner city and one in the suburbs -- and, chances are, the differences in appearance alone will be striking.

Statistical analysis backs up casual observations of racial differences in education. Last year, the Applied Research Center released a report called "Facing The Consequences" that documents the extensive racial disparities in school districts around the country and in California.

In the Los Angeles and San Francisco Unified School Districts, for example, white students are proportionally over-represented in Advanced Placement and gifted programs and under-represented in expulsions and suspensions, compared to Latino and African American students. In fact, on nearly every key indicator of academic performance -- graduation rates, dropout rates, discipline rates, etc. -- the racial disparities range from significant to stark.

A class-action lawsuit (Williams et. Al. v. State of California), filed by a coalition of civil rights groups last May, documents the deplorable conditions of many of California's schools. The plaintiff's complaint describes more than 100 schools where at least half the teaching staff is not fully credentialed. Many schools have outdated textbooks and lack ample classroom seating, while others lack bathrooms and ventilation.

These problems are concentrated in schools serving mostly students of color in urban areas, exemplifying the fact that students of different races frequently experience very separate and unequal educational opportunities. Regrettably, racial inequality is alive and well in California schools.

What causes these inequities? Some people argue that the disparities are not due to race but are the result of socioeconomic and cultural factors such as family income and parental involvement. But even students from well-off families of color with very active parents frequently lag behind white students from similar income and family backgrounds. Additionally, low-income white students are more likely to excel academically than low-income students of color. Racial disparities are distinct and significant, hardly attributable merely to family income or happenstance.

Indeed, racial inequality in our schools is a product of deeply rooted historical and institutional racism in the United States. The fact that racism permeates our society, however, is not an excuse for school personnel to let themselves off the hook. As an institution, each school must take responsibility for acknowledging and addressing racism. Unless a school takes steps to actively counteract racism, it is likely that it is unintentionally aggravating the existing inequalities.

Most people think of racism as intentional and overt acts between individuals. But the most profound forms of racism are institutional rather than interpersonal. Another common misconception is that racism can only occur between people of different races. But if certain racial groups are systematically disadvantaged or disenfranchised by school policies and practices, even if the school administrators or a majority of the school board members are people of color, there is evidence of institutional racism.

Institutional racism is frequently subtle, unintentional and invisible, but always potent. Often, institutional racism involves complex and cumulative factors; for example, when many students of color, year after year, do not have access to fully credentialed teachers, high quality curriculum materials and advanced courses.

When state laws or local school policies have the effect of advantaging or disadvantaging certain racial groups, or when funds and resources are distributed unequally, institutional racism is at work. When racial disparities go unaddressed, this, too, is a form of institutional racism.

The best way to measure institutional racism is to look at impacts rather than intentions. The effects of many policies can be easily gauged by statistical outcomes, as long as the numbers you collect are broken down by race.

For example, if the introduction of a new standardized test is accompanied by a significant jump in the dropout rate or diploma denial rate for students of color, the racial impact of the test may need scrutiny. Similarly, you can measure the impacts of certain school disciplinary actions -- such as broadly applied zero tolerance policies -- when they have the effect of disproportionately punishing and academically excluding people of color.

So, what can be done? While institutional racism can be difficult to unpack, and even more challenging to overcome, if you are committed to change, there is plenty you can do.

First, take active leadership in addressing racism. Many people are afraid to open a can of worms by directly dealing with racism. But the alternative -- keeping the can of worms sealed -- has even more pernicious effects. Each school and district, as pivotal institutions in both local communities and society at large, must be willing to accept part of the responsibility for institutional racial inequalities.

This doesn't mean that schools created all the racial problems they encounter. Certainly schools have no control over the fact that students come from a wide array of circumstances and prior life experiences, with vast resource disparities in their families and communities.

But, the important thing is that each school can take responsibility and leadership by doing everything it can to counteract racial inequality. This can be done by directly confronting every issue of inequality and guaranteeing that every student will be provided the best opportunity to flourish and succeed.

When the leadership and stakeholders in a school are willing to openly acknowledge and actively address the dynamics of institutional racism, real change becomes possible.

Second, find out what's really going on. A good way to do this is to collect data that is disaggregated by race, ethnicity and immigrant status, even if it's not required by school district policies or state law. You can't begin to effectively close racial achievement gaps until you know the nature of the gaps. Which grade levels have the widest gaps? Are they improving or worsening over time? Which racial groups are having the most success and why? Have any interventions made a difference? Good information is essential before you can do the analysis.

James Lick Middle School in San Francisco is a good example of how a school is using solid data collection to take a race-conscious approach to classroom management. Teachers and staff at the school were concerned that racially disparate discipline patterns might be tied to the racial gaps in academic performance.

They began collecting data on all disciplinary referrals and presenting the compiled data directly back to the teaching staff. The staff discovered that most referrals were due to defiance of authority or disruption of class, while serious offenses, such as possession of a weapon, were rare. Furthermore, many incidents involved conflicts between students and teachers, rather than between students.

The school's staff began holding monthly professional development meetings to work out alternative strategies for de-escalating conflict. They sought to emphasize teachers' roles in these interactions, rather than focus solely on methods of changing student behavior. Though their active use of data and revamped approach to discipline are still too new to determine the impact, teachers claim they are already seeing positive results.

Third, consider equity, along with excellence, when developing and implementing all school policies and reforms. There's an old adage that the fundamentals of education are the "3 R's" -- reading, writing and `rithmatic. Today, the guiding principle of fundamental school reform must be based on the "3 E's" -- excellence and equity for everyone.

Excellence without equity breeds disparity, while equity without excellence breeds mediocrity. Proposed education reforms and public policies must weigh equity as fully as excellence or they will merely exacerbate racial inequalities.

Even worthwhile reforms, if implemented without attention to equity impacts, can result in unintended consequences. California's recent class-size reduction program in the primary grades is a good example. Because of the way it was implemented, the class-size reduction plan resulted in a mass exodus of teachers from inner city schools to higher-paying suburban schools. This left the inner city schools, populated mostly by students of color, worse off because they were left staffed predominantly by teachers with emergency permits.

To be fair, this program should have been phased in so that the highest-need schools would have received the benefits first, including added flexibility and funding for dealing with limited classroom space, as well as financial incentives for retaining their best teachers.

Before implementing any substantive school reform measure, it is vital to thoroughly consider the "equity impact." Just as construction and industrial proposals often have to complete an environmental impact statement before the project can commence, those advocating school reform should consider racial impacts when adopting new policies.

Fourth, support accountability but resist high-stakes tests. With the introduction of the Academic Performance Index and its accompanying highstakes system of rewards and punishments, standardized test scores are fast becoming the driving force behind how California's schools are organized. The pressure to increase test scores is shaping decisions about curriculum content, staffing, promotion and school policies.

Teachers and students end up wasting valuable classroom time on "teaching to the test," and school administrators are forced to increasingly structure their schools around the pursuit of higher test scores in order to avoid the financial penalties or other sanctions if their schools don't make the grade.

The Stanford 9 exam and other highstakes tests often merely measure the past academic opportunities (or lack thereof) of the student, rather than validly assess intelligence or predict future performance. The advent of highstakes testing results in more people of color dropping out or being denied diplomas. For example, the high school exit exam in Texas has resulted in more than 7,500 students being denied their high school diplomas each year, 85 percent of whom are African Americans and Mexican Americans. Their drop-out rates are soaring as schools try to hold back and weed out students who are likely to bring the school's test scores down.

Education policies that have the effect of punishing individual students -- as well as individual teachers, principals and schools -- for the failures of the larger school system and society are unsound, unfair and racist.

We need standards and measures for assessing school systems at the local, state and federal level, since each has responsibility for various aspects of education. When the school system fails to provide enough qualified teachers, good facilities and quality curriculum materials, we need to hold accountable the decision-makers whose policies are primarily responsible for these conditions.

For example, state policymakers must be held accountable for insufficient numbers and unequal placements of qualified teachers. The hundreds of millions of dollars the state has spent on high-stakes testing alone could have gone a long way toward expanding and enhancing California's teaching force -- an investment that would advance, rather than degrade, both excellence and equity in our schools.

Fifth, involve the entire school community in efforts to increase equity. Moving toward equity is no easy task and cannot be done by just one or a few people. The entire school and community can play an important role in providing input, insight and support. All members of the school community can become active advocates for meaningful and equitable school reform proposals at the school, district, state and even federal levels. School board members, state legislators and other policymakers need to hear from their constituents that educational excellence and equity go hand-in-hand, and should be made top policy and funding priorities.

There's more energy, wisdom and hope out there than we sometimes realize. The challenge for leaders in the field of education is to find ways to actively engage as many people as possible in pursuing real solutions -- many of which are already known -- that can result in a high quality education for everyone.

Sixth, avoid the silver bullets. How many times have you heard school staff members complain about the new reform of the month? Though some so-called innovations have merit, many are just feel-good, window-dressing measures like vouchers, high-stakes tests and zero tolerance policies that do little to change the fundamental problems.

There already exist many proven solutions backed by voluminous credible academic research -- solutions aimed at achieving the goal of equal high-quality education for all students. The Applied Research Center has developed the following SMART Schools proposal as a basic blueprint for redirecting our public education policies and funding priorities in ways that are academically sound and equitable. SMART Schools involve:

   Small classes and schools.

   Money for high quality education for all students, especially those with
   the highest needs.

   Authentic assessment and high standards instead of standardized high-stakes
   tests.

   Racial and economic equity in educational policies, opportunities and
   outcomes.

   Top-notch teaching and rigorous curriculum.

Mounting evidence shows that these measures are some of the best ways to raise academic achievement. They all come with a price tag, but are well worth the cost if we're really serious about making our children the highest priority and wisely investing in our future. Any serious attempt to return California's schools to among the highest-ranking in the nation must squarely address our state budget and tax policy (including the repeal of Proposition 13), and other major factors that lead to school inadequacies and inequities.

None of these proposals are cure-all solutions, but all of them can yield both immediate and long-term substantial benefits. It is not the solutions that are lacking. It is only the political will and public commitment that is needed to do what it takes to fundamentally reform our public schools so that an excellent and equitable education will be available to everyone.

Terry Keleher is a senior researcher at the Applied Research Center. He has authored several reports on school equity issues and formerly served as an administrator and teacher at an alternative secondary school. Tammy Johnson is the program director of ARC's ERASE (Expose Racism and Advance School Excellence) Initiative and recently authored the study "Vouchers: A Trap, Not a Choice." The Applied Research Center (www.arc.org) is a national public policy and research institute that focuses on issues of race and social change.