One of the most statistically diverse schools in the country is in North Texas.
Based on U.S. Department of Education numbers, including a Student Racial Diversity Index, Wilshire Elementary School in the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District is the most diverse school in Texas and number 22 in the nation.
“They call us the melting pot of Euless. We do live close to [D/FW] Airport, so we have a lot of families who move in and move out because their parents may work at the airport,” principal Jodie Ramos said.
Ramos said the school works to honor students’ heritage while celebrating what they all have in common: a love of learning.
“I hear students share about their uniqueness and their culture and other students start asking questions – ‘Tell me about this.’ ‘What about this?’ ‘What is school like [in your home country],’” Ramos said. “They are constantly learning from one another. And that is more than we would get from the average text book.”
The school has held a “Heritage Night” where students and parents spend an evening at the school, dressed in native clothing while sharing food and stories from their home countries.
“Sometimes we have students who are coming from a country and they do not speak our language, so coming into a school building is very intimidating for them,” Ramos said. “We take the time to build relationships with each child and find out what respect looks like to them. What trust looks like to them.”
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“We have students from all over the world who come to our school and it is our job to prepare them for life after school,” Ramos said. “It doesn’t matter where they come from, our doors are always open and we welcome everybody.”
HEB ISD is a diverse district as a whole offering several languages, including Hindi, Arabic and Mandarin Chinese.
