2005 - Court-Ordered Desegregation: Successes and Failures Integrating American Schools Since Brown Versus Board of Education

Attribution: Reber, Sarah J.
Researchers: Sarah J. Reber
University Affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles
Email: sreber@ucla.edu
Research Question:
The purpose is to assess whether desegregation plans led to losses in white enrollment and examine the effects of plans on the loss of white students.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Journal of Human Resources
Journal Entry: Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 559-590
Year: 2005
Findings:
  • Desegregation plans reduced segregation significantly in the short run.
  • The policies are significantly related to a rise in non-White exposure to whites, but the long-term effect is reduced due to White flight—up to 1/3 of the initial increase in nonwhite exposure was offset by white flight.
  • The plans are associated with large increases in white exposure to nonwhites.
  • White exposure continued to rise, reflecting continuing with enrollment losses. White flight around the time of plan implementation was more substantial for districts that achieved longer short-term reductions in segregation. The effect was stronger for districts in metropolitan areas with more nearby alternative school districts.
  • Reber suggests that the success of desegregation plans was limited by the decision to exclude suburban districts from the plans.
Keywords: DesegregationMilliken v. BradleyResegregationResidential SegregationWhite FlightRegions: NationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: SurveyAnalysis Methods: Two Stage Least Squares Sampling Frame:National
Sampling Types: NonrandomAnalysis Units: SchoolData Types: Quantitative-Cross Sectional
Data Description:
  • The study uses school level data on enrollment by race for a sample of 108 districts that had at least one court-ordered desegregation plan between 1961 and 1986. The data are from the US Commission on Civil Rights.
  • Also included is the methods used in each district desegregation plan.
  • It also includes information about all court-ordered desegregation plans in each of the districts sampled.
  • This study analyzes data for Whites and non-Whites (including Hispanics).
  • DV: The dissimilarity index and exposure index are used to measure segregation. White flight.
  • IV: public school districts in MSA, percent in private schools, school segregation, region, plan characteristics.
  • Control Variables: district area, total enrollment, initial white share of enrollment, percent employment in manufacturing, percent change city population.
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts