How Society Failed School Desegregation Policy: Looking Past the Schools to Understand Them

Majority of research on desegregation has not linked findings to broader social, political, and economic issues.
Many studies critiquing broader social and racial stratification and discussing the impact of this inequality on public schools is theoretical and conceptual, rather than empirical.
Research on academic achievement of students in racially mixed schools may have neglected the conditions of desegregation and the different types of desegregation plans.
Research on long-term effects of desegregation cannot disentangle effects of the desegregated schools from peer influences.
Research on political context and public opinion often fails to connect these broader contexts to the experiences of students and educators or how politics have compromised the goals of desegregation at the school and classroom levels.
The authors own research attempts to correct these lacuna by examining the specific context and demographics in the daily experiences of educators and students in racially diverse schools.
Although it has achieved many things, school desegregation has not met its original goals because the larger societal forces of housing segregation, economic inequality, and racial politics, have continued to work against it.

Filter