Desegregating schools: More than just getting the numbers right

Desegregating schools: More than just getting the numbers right

A Brookings Institution Report

truggles over school desegregation are back. Howard County andNew York City are just the best-known places now roiled by it.

Integrating public schools is tough, even in places where the population is varied enough to make it numerically possible. And after decades of experience, we still know very little about how to make it work.

Paul T. Hill

Founder - The Center on Reinventing Public Education

Research Professor - The University of Washington Bothell

Former Nonresident Senior Fellow - The Brookings Institution

Recent experience is not encouraging. A new report about diverse-by-design charter schools shows that only a minority of these schools has been able to attract the mixed population they sought. Out of 191 charter schools that were judged to have a “strong commitment” to diversity, 89 were still rated “low diversity” in enrollment.

Desegregation is difficult to achieve because children of different races live in different neighborhoods. But that’s not all: When families are able to choose schools without regard to location—for example, in the case of charter schools—the resulting schools are often more segregated than neighborhood schools.

Once achieved, desegregation can be hard to keep. Magnet and charter schools designed to be desegregated can tip over time to become dominated by students of one race/ethnicity. Efforts to create excellent schools that will attract a diverse population can end up attracting too many white and middle-class students. On the other hand, any parent will distrust and want to leave a school they fear does not prioritize their children’s needs.

The parents of a given school are like a political coalition: They are a group that agrees on a single action—enrolling in the school—but their reasons for doing so can differ. This has big implications for school desegregation. First, any parent’s enrollment decision must be seen as conditional and subject to reversal. Second, all parents might have common desires about some things (for example, hoping that great biology teacher stays around) and might leave if disappointed. Third, and most challengingly, different parents’ expectations easily come into conflict, so that promises made to one parent might drive another away.