Decomposing School Resegregation

Abstract

Today’s typical minority student attends school with fewer whites than his counterpart in 1970. This apparent resegregation of U.S. schools has sparked outrage and debate. Some blame a rollback of desegregation policies designed to distribute students more evenly among schools; others blame the changing racial composition of the student population. This study clarifies the link between distributive processes of segregation, population change, and school racial composition by framing school segregation as a mode of social closure. I use a novel decomposition approach to determine the relative contributions of distributive processes and compositional change in the apparent resegregation of schools from 1993 to 2010. For the most part, compositional changes are to blame for the declining presence of whites in minorities’ schools. During this period, whites and minorities actually became more evenly distributed across schools, helping increase minority students’ exposure to whites. Further decompositions reveal the continued success of district-level desegregation efforts, but the greatest barrier to progress appears to be the uneven distribution of students between school districts in the same area. These findings call for new research and new policies to address contemporary school segregation.

The Gifted Gap, STEM Education, and Economic Immobility

“…This study is guided by the following research questions: (Fiel, 2013;Reardon & Owens, 2014a). In 2015-2016, 58,289 or 39% of the students in the district attended a school at which more than 75% of the students qualify for FRPL, whereas 31,142 students, 21% of the total population, attended a school at which fewer than 25% of students qualified for FRPL.…”

Assessing Segregation Under a New Generation of Controlled Choice Policies

“…Today, in a more demographically diverse landscape, the consensus of educational research about the short- and long-term benefits of integrated schools continues to motivate many larger districts’ integration efforts. After substantial progress from the late 1960s to late 1980s in reducing the segregation of Black and White students, students have become increasingly separate from one another in public schools as they have resegregated (Fiel, 2013). In future decades, educators will need to understand how to attend to the development of children and youth in a multiracial setting, especially with respect to cross-cultural/racial understandings.…”

Does School Racial Composition Matter to Teachers: Examining Racial Differences in Teachers’ Perceptions of Student Problems

“…School racial segregation remains high with Black–White dissimilarity values around 44 within school districts and 62 between school districts for metropolitan areas in 2010 (Logan, Zhang, & Oakley, 2017). There has been much debate concerning the resegregation of schools with some scholars noting increased segregation in the 1990s (Orfield, Frankenberg, & Lee, 2003; Orfield & Lee, 2007) while others finding compositional changes in metropolitan areas as the reason for this apparent resegregation (Fiel, 2013; Logan, 2004; Logan et al, 2017; Orfield & Lee, 2007; Stroub & Richards, 2013). However, most recent studies agree that after 1990, the rate of school desegregation has slowed, if not plateaued (Fiel, 2013; Logan et al, 2017; Stroub & Richards, 2013).…”

“…There has been much debate concerning the resegregation of schools with some scholars noting increased segregation in the 1990s (Orfield, Frankenberg, & Lee, 2003; Orfield & Lee, 2007) while others finding compositional changes in metropolitan areas as the reason for this apparent resegregation (Fiel, 2013; Logan, 2004; Logan et al, 2017; Orfield & Lee, 2007; Stroub & Richards, 2013). However, most recent studies agree that after 1990, the rate of school desegregation has slowed, if not plateaued (Fiel, 2013; Logan et al, 2017; Stroub & Richards, 2013). Researchers also note that future segregation trends may be complicated with the rise of charter schools and rapidly changing metropolitan demographics where steady increases in the minority population are seen (Fiel, 2013).…”

“…However, most recent studies agree that after 1990, the rate of school desegregation has slowed, if not plateaued (Fiel, 2013; Logan et al, 2017; Stroub & Richards, 2013). Researchers also note that future segregation trends may be complicated with the rise of charter schools and rapidly changing metropolitan demographics where steady increases in the minority population are seen (Fiel, 2013).…”