ERIC Number: ED583021
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Jan
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Review of "The Integration Anomaly: Comparing the Effect of K-12 Education Delivery Models on Segregation in Schools"
Siegel-Hawley, Geneveve; Frankenberg, Erica
National Education Policy Center
"The Integration Anomaly" explores a "puzzling divergence" between changes in metropolitan residential and school segregation. Based on a review of existing literature, it argues that the best way to address rising school segregation is to decouple school assignment from neighborhoods through universal school choice. The report concludes with suggestions for how to structure school choice to achieve integration. On the surface, the report provides clearcut, useful recommendations for addressing persistent school segregation. Yet the analysis of the empirical relationship between school and residential segregation relies on flawed methodological decisions concerning how to define segregation and divergent trends over time. Those problematic definitions, in turn, yield biased results and prompt the reader to incorrectly assume that housing integration policies will have little bearing on school segregation. Moreover, the report's review of the literature on school choice is haphazard and incomplete, drawing conclusions beyond what the research supports. Perhaps most importantly, "The Integration Anomaly" ignores a growing body of literature finding that the very type of unregulated school choice it proposes has, in many instances, exacerbated racial segregation. The report presents arguments and solutions largely driven by ideology, not evidence, offering little value for policymakers or educators meaningfully engaged in the critical search for strategies to reduce school segregation. A list of notes and references is included. [For "The Integration Anomaly: Comparing the Effect of K-12 Education Delivery Models on Segregation in Schools," see ED570432.]
Descriptors: Delivery Systems, School Segregation, Elementary Secondary Education, Residential Patterns, Metropolitan Areas, Research Reports, Evidence, Research Utilization, Trend Analysis, School Choice, Parent Attitudes, Desegregation Methods, Research Methodology, Validity, Educational Practices, Educational Policy, Models
National Education Policy Center. School of Education 249 UCB University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309. Tel: 303-735-5290; e-mail: nepc@colorado.edu; Web site: http://nepc.colorado.edu
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative; Opinion Papers
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice
Authoring Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder, National Education Policy Center
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A