When Fein came to Sterling MS, it had a minority population of about 8 percent. This school year, minorities will comprise 34 percent of the student body with their numbers distributed fairly evenly between Asian, Hispanic and African-American students. The school also has a large Middle Eastern population that is not calculated in minority statistics. It brings a lot of interesting diversity into the classroom, a lot of past experiences. . . . It brings a lot of valuable information to the classroom.
Many teachers have days when students share something from their culture, the dress or the food.
Mixing cultures has gone smoothly at Sterling MS, she added. The students get along really well. Of course a lot of kids have gone to school with this cultural mix since kindergarten. They do it better than the adults do, I think. Fein said Sterling Middle has an extremely active core of parent volunteers.