WASHINGTON (February 12, 2025) – Systemic racism in U.S. education perpetuates inequities through underfunded schools, discriminatory policies, and limited representation of marginalized communities in curricula and teaching staff.
Historical segregation and inequitable funding created barriers that persist today, including the school-to-prison pipeline, racial achievement gaps, and a lack of diverse educators. Efforts to address these issues have made progress but systemic challenges remain deeply rooted.
In honor of Black History Month, faculty experts at the George Washington University are available to share insights and analysis informed by their research and lived experiences. If you would like to connect with an expert, please contact GW Media Relations Specialist Tayah Frye at kfackelmann@gwu.edu.
Dr. Dwayne Kwaysee Wright is assistant professor of higher education administration. His research and social activism seek to advance educational opportunity and equity for all students, particularly those historically oppressed and marginalized in American society. He can discuss how identity affects the experience in higher education. His areas of empirical research interest include access, diversity, and equity policies for underserved populations in higher education; the use and influence of social science research in/on law; undergraduate and professional Multicultural Greek Life; and critical race theory & critical pedagogy in post-secondary education. His legal research interest focuses primarily on education law, First Amendment jurisprudence and American equal protection theory.
Dr. Doran Gresham is an Assistant Professor of Special Education and Disability Studies at the George Washington University. Gresham’s primary research interest pertains to the overrepresentation of minorities in classrooms for students with special needs. To that end, he created “The Gresham Survey” to quantitatively assess the perceptions of general educators about the overrepresentation of elementary aged African American males identified as having an emotional disturbance. Since 2005, this tool has been modified so that it might also include the voices and opinions of administrators. The purpose of this research is to shed light on to this chronic institutionalized civil rights issue, which leads to systemic poor outcomes for students of color.
Dr. Deniece Dortch’s research and teaching grapples with systemic oppression across multiple axes. She uses critical phenomenological approaches to understanding how African American undergraduate and graduate students experience and respond to race and racism at predominantly white institutions of higher education. Dr. Dortch studies the socialization of undergraduate and graduate students of color. She is especially interested in how psychological violence and fear is experienced, manifested and reproduced in the academy. Her most recent projects explore intra-racial relationships, racial agency and their effects on persistence in higher education. Dr. Dortch’s publications address topics such as the self-efficacy of graduate students and the sense of belonging of undergraduate students of color at predominantly white institutions.
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