{"id":43730,"date":"2018-05-17T13:24:17","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T20:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=43730"},"modified":"2018-05-17T13:24:17","modified_gmt":"2018-05-17T20:24:17","slug":"why-america-needs-a-new-approach-to-school-desegregation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/why-america-needs-a-new-approach-to-school-desegregation\/","title":{"rendered":"Why America needs a new approach to school desegregation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nDespite all the time and effort invested desegregating the nation\u2019s schools over the past half century, the reality is\u00a0America\u2019s schools are more segregated now than they were in 1968<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Keep that statistic in mind as the nation marks the 64th anniversary of\u00a0Brown v. Board of Education<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 the 1954 Supreme Court decision that famously mandated the desegregation of U.S. public schools.<\/p>\n

If the vision of educational fairness expressed in the Brown decision is to be achieved, the nation must deal with the underlying driver of racial segregation in schools: the inclination of white citizens to hoard educational resources.<\/p>\n

I make these arguments as one who has\u00a0studied school segregation up close<\/a>\u00a0for over a decade.<\/p>\n

Racial segregation has proved resilient over the last half century. It\u00a0circumvented court orders<\/a>\u00a0and reappeared in housing patterns shaped by school zoning policies. It adapted by moving down to the classroom level to take the form of\u00a0tracking<\/a>\u00a0students into gifted and talented programs or Advanced Placement classes. It has become\u00a0alloyed with economic segregation<\/a>\u00a0so that low-income students and students of color end up concentrated in the same schools. The consequences have been predictably dire for students relegated to these increasingly underfunded and racially isolated schools.<\/p>\n

Why school segregation persists<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The\u00a0historical record<\/a>\u00a0shows that the desire for predominantly white educational spaces has\u00a0undermined desegregation orders<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a01954<\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0present<\/a>. For example,\u00a0willfully resistant interpretations<\/a>\u00a0of the charge to desegregate \u201cwith all deliberate speed\u201d in Brown v. Board delayed substantive action on school segregation for over a decade.<\/p>\n

This resistance has only increased in sophistication and effectiveness over time. Carefully choreographed legal and political strategies\u00a0slowed desegregation of schools<\/a>. The 1992\u00a0Freeman v. Pitts Supreme Court decision<\/a>\u00a0made it easier to lift desegregation orders and opened the way for a national\u00a0swing back toward racial segregation in schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This new segregation is not directly enforced by law, but indirectly through\u00a0school zoning, housing patterns<\/a>, and\u00a0recently by neighborhood secessionist movements<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All of this permits affluent white families to continue to\u00a0monopolize premium educational resources<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Charter schools<\/a>\u00a0have not been able to slow this resurgence of school segregation. Neither did the federal\u00a0No Child Left Behind<\/a>\u00a0law. In fact, there are reasons to believe both have\u00a0made segregation worse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Corrosive effects of segregation<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Students of color in racially isolated schools\u00a0experience lower academic outcomes<\/a>. Their\u00a0dropout rates increase<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My own research has shown how school segregation\u00a0communicates corrosive messages<\/a>\u00a0to students of color. My colleagues and I spent 10 years interviewing students in an Alabama school district that had its federal desegregation order lifted. These children watched as the district\u2019s predominantly white leadership moved immediately to rezone and resegregate their schools.<\/p>\n

Students assigned to the district\u2019s underresourced all-black high school reported concluding that they were\u00a0regarded as \u201cbad kids,\u201d \u201cgarbage people,\u201d or \u201cviolent or something,\u201d and therefore not worthy of investment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps worse, the black students in the newly resegregated school read the harm being done to them as intentional and often saw no hope of redress. One student remarked: \u201cI feel like this is an injustice, the way we were brought here to fail. And now it is becoming a reality. I think five or 10 years more down the line it\u2019s going to be horrible. Seriously, it\u2019s going to be horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where schools have been desegregated,\u00a0the negative academic effects are significantly reduced<\/a>. Rucker Johnson, associate professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, has found that desegregation\u00a0raises income levels and wealth accumulation across generations<\/a>, and even improves health outcomes across students\u2019 lifespans.<\/p>\n

The psychological effects of desegregation, however, are more complicated. Desegregating schools provides more balanced access to resources, but puts students of color in schools staffed primarily by white educators who still often\u00a0harbor implicitly and explicitly racist attitudes<\/a>. Children of color\u00a0pay a price for this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For white students, school desegregation has no measurable negative effects on academic performance and graduation rates. Meanwhile, school desegregation provides\u00a0many positive social effects for all students<\/a>, including reduction of racial prejudice and generally becoming more comfortable around people of different backgrounds.<\/p>\n

Possible remedies<\/strong><\/h4>\n

So, what lessons have been learned from America\u2019s failed efforts to desegregate its public schools?<\/p>\n

The first is that the desire for racially segregated schooling evolves in response to efforts to promote racial equity in schools. This implies that lawmakers should not presume integration of schools will help communities \u201coutgrow racism.\u201d Desegregation orders, where needed, need to be permanent.<\/p>\n

Second, geography has always been used as a\u00a0proxy to preserve school segregation<\/a>. Communities need housing policies that effectively inhibit the creation of racially and economically segregated neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Third, adequate and equitable funding is needed across school districts. There is nothing magically educational about sitting next to a white person in school. The\u00a0primary problem<\/a>\u00a0is the way resources\u00a0disproportionately follow white bodies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finally, the teaching profession must be fully diversified. Fifty-one percent of students entering public schools are persons of color, but more than\u00a080 percent of teachers are white<\/a>. Placing children of color in predominantly white schools and counting on color-blind professionalism to protect them is not an adequate plan. Research conducted by my colleagues and I reveals how this approach\u00a0misunderstands the way racism operates<\/a>\u00a0and leaves children of color exposed to psychological and pedagogical harm.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s school systems need to recruit, support and retain teachers who identify with the experiences of the students they serve. Additionally, all teachers must be educated to recognize the constantly evolving forms of segregation in the nation\u2019s school systems, to protect students from its worst effects and to join the struggle to build a better system.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Jerry Rosiek is a Professor of Education Studies at the University of Oregon<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite all the time and effort invested desegregating the nation\u2019s schools over the past half century, the reality is\u00a0America\u2019s schools are more segregated now than they were in 1968. Keep that statistic in mind as the nation marks the 64th anniversary of\u00a0Brown v. Board of Education\u00a0\u2013 the 1954 Supreme Court decision that famously mandated the […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":43731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15645],"tags":[185183],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-43730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-desegregate"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy America needs a new approach to school desegregation - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/why-america-needs-a-new-approach-to-school-desegregation\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why America needs a new approach to school desegregation - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Despite all the time and effort invested desegregating the nation\u2019s schools over the past half century, the reality is\u00a0America\u2019s schools are more segregated now than they were in 1968. 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