School Integration and Residential Segregation in California
Title: School Integration and Residential Segregation in California: Challenges for Racial Equity
Authors: Jordan Rickles, Paul M. Ong, Doug Houston
Date: June 2004
Most California students live in “single-race” or segregated neighborhoods, and as a result they attend schools that are similarly racially isolated. This is a matter of policy concern because racially segregated schools are institutional mechanisms for reproducing inequalities in learning opportunity and for widening the gaps in academic success among children of different races. In the study described below we analyzed elementary schools in five California metropolitan areas to examine the extent that the racial composition of schools deviates from neighborhood compositions, and investigate the potential for schools to promote racial integration. We found that some alternatives to conventional neighborhood assignments to be more promising than others. Magnet schools, on average, provide students with a more integrated environment than the local neighborhood. On the other hand, charter schools, an increasingly popular educational option, are likely to provide students with a more segregated learning environment than what they would receive in a school attended only by peers from within their own neighborhood.
