Whether Segregation in Schools is Still a Crucial Topic to Debate

The topic that I have chosen to research is school segregation. My research question is why is school segregation still a topic of conversation in 2020? Honestly, I had not given much thought to school segregation when I was growing up. While I realized that my suburban school was predominantly white, I did not question it until I got to high school. School segregation became of increasing interest and rather apparent to me when I was hired for my first teaching job in August. There was a clear contrast between my predominantly white, upper-middle class suburban high school and the predominantly Latinx and Black urban school that I currently teach at. It is obvious that there is something at work creating such a contrast when the schools are just over 10 miles apart. Like many others, I had believed and been taught that school segregation ended with the Brown v. Board of Education decision; however, that is simply not the case.

I have chosen this topic because it is a relevant issue in my current job. Now that I have my own students that are directly impacted by school segregation, I want to learn more about it. Through my research, I hope to learn what causes school segregation and how it operates. In addition, I want to have a deeper understanding of the implications of school segregation both on society at large and individual students. If I can understand its inner workings, then I can better fight back against it and advocate for change. 

Analysis of Southern Schools Segregation Issue

The purpose of the article 'Racial Segregation in the Southern Schools' by Taylor, Frankenberg, & Siegel-Hawley is to analyze the impact of school district secession on racial school segregation in the South. The authors identify a major gap in literature on school district secessions. They call for a framework through which to examine the impact of proposed secessions and the evaluation of the impact of current secessions. They identify the problem as school district secessions being a tool through which areas avoid desegregation and explore its impacts in counties that had recent secessions (within the past five years) and those that have had secessions since 2000. The authors' research question is have new school district boundaries increased student and residential segregation in the South? Their research is rooted in Critical Theory because through their critique they are attempting to provoke social change.

Their research method is quantitative through secondary data analysis.  They analyzed data from the census, Common Core of Data, and TIGER using Thiel's H to determine the magnitude of segregation at various scales.  The independent variable in their research is school district boundaries and the dependent variable is student and residential segregation. Through their data analysis they found that multiracial segregation increased slightly in areas impacted by school district secession from 2010 to 2015 and that “school district boundaries accounted for an increasing share of the existing segregation”. Schools in the seven counties studied were significantly less diverse than the county’s actual student population. The authors used this data to form their conclusion that school district secession is a new form of resistance against desegregation and that the phenomenon makes it difficult to pursue school integration policies in the South. This article has several aspects that are relevant to my topic. First, they include a depth of knowledge on the history between Southern schools and segregation which gives me a basis to contextualize school segregation and give key background information in my own research paper. Second, they are comparing data from 2000 to 2014-15 data which makes their findings recent enough to help support the answer to why school segregation is still a topic of conversation in 2020. Finally, it describes one of the mechanisms of school segregation which is school district secession in the South.

Promises of “Brown v. Board of Education”

The purpose of the next article called 'Harming Our Common Future: America’s Segregated Schools 65 Years after “Brown”' by Frankenberg, Ee, Ayscue, & Orfield is to highlight the growth of economic and racial segregation that began with the end of many desegregation orders and plans across the country in the 1990s and to address how the promise of “Brown v. Board of Education” has been put at risk due to this. The authors call attention to the current lack of a better way to “measure economic segregation and its connection to racial segregation in our nation’s schools”. In addition, they discuss that it has been a significant amount of time since federal agencies have funded research into methods to achieve school integration effectively. They identify the problems that school segregation has grown since the end of desegregation programs and that there is a lack of funded research into ways to effectively combat it. In their article, they plan to share research-backed recommendations to reduce the number of segregated schools and to keep the promise of “Brown” alive. Their research question is how school segregation has changed since the end of official desegregation programs. The theoretical framework that guides their research is Critical Theory because they are exploring how the current public education system is perpetuating social inequalities.

The authors utilize quantitative research methods by analyzing data from sources such as the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, and Common Core of Data. They use this data to discuss changes in public school enrollment in terms of states, regions, and types of areas and show the increased diversity of public school enrollment. Then, the article analyzed trends in segregation including Black, Latinx, and white segregation, as well as double segregation which is the presence of both racial and economic segregation. Finally, the authors offer recommendations for integration including dual language immersion programs, fair housing policies, and increased trainings for teachers and administrators. This article relates to my research topic because it highlights why school segregation is still relevant and offers recommendations for how to achieve integration and combat segregation. In addition, their dataset covers the entire United States which means that I can utilize their findings to make statements about the increase in diversity in public school enrollment and trends of segregation, and their regional data allows for comparison between different areas of the United States.

Long Lasted Effect of School Segregation During College Studies

The third article 'Trajectories of Exposure to Racial School Segregation and the Transition to College' by Warkentien studies the impact of experiencing school segregation in middle and high school on college outcomes. Warkentien identified that most of the previous literature on the topic measure exposure to school segregation at a single point in time which ignores that exposure to segregated schools can vary over the course of their education and that the duration of exposure is also a factor. This leads to limitations in understanding the full impact of exposure to school segregation on students and their educational attainment. It is for this reason that Warkentien focuses her study on the “consequences of experiencing different timing, duration, and stability of exposure to black-segregated schools on enrollment in a 2- or 4-year college and completion of a 2- or 4-year degree”. She focuses specifically on black-segregated schools because Black segregation is still relevant in current day and has a long history in the United States. Racial inequalities throughout the United States’ existence means that, on average, black-segregated schools have “fewer school resources, less qualified teachers, higher proportions of economically disadvantaged students, and lower average academic achievement” which negatively impacts educational outcomes and attainment. Her research question is how college outcomes are impacted by the timing, duration, and stability of the school segregation students are exposed to in middle and high school. She is working off the framework of Critical Theory through her exploration of how school segregation produces a negative impact on college outcomes thereby perpetuating inequalities.

Warkentien uses qualitative research methods. Her data is derived from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 which follows a sample of children and collects data from year to year about their school experiences. The sample from the larger survey population that she used was 2,132 students. She investigated the timing of their exposure, the number of years they were exposed, and the stability of their exposure. Warkentien utilized longitudinal latent class analysis to identify four groupings: “consistently nonexposed to segregated schools, consistently exposed, entering segregated schools, and exiting segregated schools”. These groupings are used to study the impact of exposure on college enrollment and graduation. Her research found that exposure to school segregation negatively impacts educational outcomes and that students exposed to it are less likely than their non-exposed peers to enroll in and graduate college. These findings relate to my research topic because they show that school segregation has a negative impact on educational attainment which is a major issue that would be a cause for conversation on the topic. In general, this article shows the implications of school segregation on students which was one of the aspects of school segregation I was interested in.

Conclusion

The main purpose of my research was to discover methods of combatting school segregation. When I talk about school segregation, I am talking about it in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, primary language, and ability. This topic is important because it impacts not just the field of education, but the whole of U.S. society. School segregation perpetuates the existing inequalities in the United States, and this is something that needs to be addressed if the country is to grow into a society where all people can truly prosper. People need to be educated and actions need to be taken to pursue integration.

References

• Warkentien, 2016, 'Trajectories of Exposure to Racial School Segregation and the Transition to College'
• Frankenberg, Ee, Ayscue, & Orfield, 2019, 'Harming Our Common Future: America’s Segregated Schools 65 Years after “Brown”'
• Taylor, Frankenberg, & Siegel-Hawley, 2019, 'Racial Segregation in the Southern Schools, School Districts, and Counties Where Districts Have Seceded'