Using Socioeconomic-Based Strategies to Further Racial Integration in K-12 Schools. Literature Review
Author: Frankenburg, Erica
Date: 2018-02-00
Type: Information Analyses
Subjects: Racial Integration,Elementary Secondary Education,Socioeconomic Status,Race,Racial Relations,Minority Group Students,Desegregation Litigation,School Desegregation,Program Implementation,Racial Composition,Civil Rights,Court Litigation,School Districts,Ethnic Groups,Neighborhood Integration,Racial Segregation

While some state and local education agencies may raise concerns over shifting legal principles and political apprehension in pursuing strategies that integrate students across race, socioeconomic status, and other factors, the changing demographics warrant serious inquiry into integration opportunities. This paper surveys the landscape of K-12 integration strategies to understand what is being implemented and what we know about the design and implementation of such policies that might create more diverse schools and reduce racial isolation. Before turning to that emerging body of literature, however, it is important to understand why integration matters and the legal landscap that currently surrounds voluntary integration. Just more than half of the students in U.S. public schools are students of color, a percentage that has rapidly increased and is even higher among younger students. Moreover, among students of color, there exists substantial diversity: Latino students now outnumber African American students, including in the South. In some metro areas, Asian students also comprise a sizeable share of the enrollment. Further, in the two largest regions of the country, the West and the South, the public school enrollment is only 45 percent White. Thus, integration today must account for a very different demographic context than earlier generations with a White majority of students and which often involved desegregation of only two racial/ethnic groups. Just more than half of the students in U.S. public schools are students of color, a percentage that has rapidly increased and is even higher among younger students. Integration today must account for a very different demographic context than earlier generations with a White majority of students and which often involved desegregation of only two racial/ethnic groups. In contrast to growing segregation, research illuminates an array of benefits of racially-diverse schools--for students of all racial/ethnic groups. Psychological studies have found that intergroup contact in racially-diverse schools results in students being more likely to have interracial friendships, which in turn are associated with lower prejudice and stereotype formation. Other studies suggest that students in racially-diverse schools display higher comfort across racial/ethnic lines, which extends into adulthood. For example, in one district, students who had attended desegregated schools were more likely to live in more integrated neighborhoods as young adults. Longitudinal research has found various life course benefits for African American students who attended desegregated schools during the civil rights era, such as improved health outcomes, higher earnings, higher educational attainment and matriculation in colleges of higher quality, and lower rates of incarceration. These studies are significant because they demonstrate that school desegregation benefits students long after they have left desegregated settings, which in turn then benefits their communities and society. Thus, Mickelson &amp; Nkomo (2012) argue that research indicates school desegregation is beneficial for a cohesive democratic society.