The latest episode of campus talk show “UO Today” focuses on the intersection of race and education through a conversation with Amy Stuart Wells, a professor of sociology and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Wells discusses how educational policies and opportunities for minority students have been influenced by issues such as desegregation, affirmative action, school choice and standardized tests.

“We define outcomes very narrowly with test scores,” Wells said in an episode that aired Oct. 5. “That’s had an impact on the educational system because then we define schools or children as ‘bad’ or ‘good,’ ‘high-achieving’ or ‘low-achieving,’ without looking at multiple ways of thinking of achievement.

“There are many pieces of the curriculum that get pushed aside because we’re only using these tests. That has led to definitions of schools that are racialized and based on students’ income, and then that reinforces patterns of housing segregation and patterns of choice that happen when families with more resources and access to ‘good’ schools can gravitate toward those.”

Wells will deliver a lecture, “Our Children’s Burden: How Public Education Helps Sustain a Diverse Democracy,” on campus Oct. 18. Wells is also the 2016-17 Wayne Morse Chair of Law and Politics and will co-teach a graduate class on sociology and education this fall through the College of Education.

Watch the full episode at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1c8PY0qCWg&feature=youtu.be