Sean Reardon Kendra Bischoff Stanford University
Racial and ethnic disparities in academic achievement and social outcomes are persistent features of the U.S. educational landscape. One prominent legal and policy remedy for these disparities is school desegregation. It is unclear, however, to what extent inequalities stem from differences in school environments or from differences in family background and other extra-school attributes. In this research, the investigators exploit a random assignment of students to a desegregation program to answer the question, "Given the same family background, what is the effect on minority students of attending a more integrated, higher-achieving school?" The analysis uses data from a voluntary interdistrict desegregation plan that allows minority students to transfer from a largely minority and low-income district into neighboring, mostly white and upper middle-class districts. The project will use three sources of data to assess the outcomes of interest: 1) School district administrative records to assess academic outcomes; 2) Student and parent surveys to assess social outcomes; and 3) In-depth parent and student interviews to test the mechanisms that connect school context to student outcomes. Prior research has primarily focused on the effect of schools on academic outcomes; however, some of the most profound effects of school context are likely social--reflected in students' attitudes, friendships, level of civic engagement, and racial and ethnic identities. This mixed-method approach will provide an opportunity to explore the processes that drive the observed outcomes, something that has been lost on previous research.
Broader Impacts: This research has implications for the educational opportunities for minority and low-income youth. Racial achievement gaps have proven to be stubborn, despite the sweeping changes in accountability procedures brought about by the No Child Left Behind legislation. There is very little good evidence on the ways in which desegregation in schools may alleviate achievement gaps or how it may socially prepare minority and low-income students for future participation in mainstream settings, such as diverse 4-year colleges or white-collar jobs. By broadly disseminating the findings from this study to academics, policy makers, and school practitioners, findings could potentially inform school assignment decisions.
