Diverse schools spark changes in Tennessee

NASHVILLE — It wasn't all that long ago that Candy Clifford joined Murfreesboro City Schools as the district's sole community outreach coordinator. Her task was to immerse in whatever diverse cultures local families were bringing into the schools. She helped everyone get along.

Now 13 years later, a boom in diversity in Murfreesboro — home to four of the 10 most-diverse schools in Tennessee — means Clifford doesn't do the job alone. A whole team, including two Spanish-speaking coordinators and a part-time Arabic coordinator, work to understand diversity in the district.

"What we've done is try to celebrate who they are and also educate them to be successful in their community and in our schools," Clifford said. "We have coordinators that work very one-on-one with these families."

Murfreesboro has seen the kind of change that makes this year a unique one in American history. For the first time, public schools began this year with white students in the minority, a trend projected to continue.

According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics — analyzed by Paste BN — the white minority is not yet the case in Tennessee classrooms, where 67 percent of students are white. But change is coming.

The diversity analysis found that within the next few years, when two random Tennessee students meet in a hallway, they are likely to be of different races.

Still, extremes exist. Within most counties, some schools remain essentially racially homogenous. But it's in the melting pots where administrators such as Clifford already understand the nation's changing face.

"We realize we have a lot of diversity in city schools," she said, "and I think we've approached it head on."