Research Digest
This summary highlights the last quarter's research produced by the Civil Rights Project and its Center for Civil Rights Remedies.
Is Opportunity Knocking or Slipping Away? Racial Diversity and Segregation in Pennsylvania
Published: January 16, 2015
The tenth in a series examining school segregation along the East Coast, this report uses statewide public school enrollment data from 1989 to 2010 and examines changes in school enrollment and segregation at the state-level as well across Pennsylvania’s two largest metropolitan areas-–Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Co-authored by Stephen Kotok and Katherine Reed, the study finds that segregation by race and poverty in Pennsylvania is worsening and that little action has been taken to this harmful pattern. For example, the amount of intensely segregated schools, with over 90% students of color, has more than doubled in the past two decades.
The Courts, the Legislature and Delaware’s Resegregation
Published: December 18, 2014
This report, by Arielle Niemeyer, documents how federal court decisions, which dismantled the Delaware school desegregation plan in 1996, and state government efforts, like the 2001 Neighborhood Schools Act, are linked to profound resegregation detailed in the report. The court-ordered consolidation of the school districts in Wilmington and surrounding suburbs, accompanied by the implementation of the comprehensive school desegregation plan, once made Delaware one of the most integrated states in the nation. Niemayer’s study uses federal school enrollment data from 1989 to 2010 to assess the changes in school enrollment and segregation over time.
Published: September 24, 2014
Jennifer Ayscue and Shoshee Jau analyze analyze school segregation in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont and find it to be presently modest and localized, especially compared to other parts of the country. Northern New England has long been a predominantly white area of the country, and these states currently have relatively small and solvable segregation problems, much like what most of Southern New England had a generation ago. But slow increases in racial diversity signal changes ahead for the region’s schools. The authors urge the states and schools to act now to create policies addressing racial change and integration, before segregation becomes entrenched.
Published: September 11, 2014
A bilingual educational guide is available to school leaders and policy makers that helps California schools, districts and teachers target the best ways to implement California's Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), so that it narrows the achievement gaps between the state’s English Learners (ELs) and all other students. The guidance recommends research-based practices that innovate and reshape ways for addressing the educational needs of ELs.
