Integration and Diversity

Research in this section explores the impacts and benefits of racial and ethnic diversity in education, as well as resegregation trends and remedies in our nation's public schools.

Affirmative Action as a Wedge Issue: Prop 209 and The 1996 Presidential Election

This paper analyzes the "wedge issue" strategy from both a geopolitical and survey based perspective relying on the GIS mapping of the Statewide Database and a preelection survey that oversampled minorities in different types of neighborhood contexts. We find that although white voters overwhelmingly supported Prop 209, including independent and moderate Democrats, the issue failed to swing their vote from Clinton to Dole because it was less important than other more traditional Presidential issues such as the economy. Nonwhite and the loyal Republicans were more concerned about Prop 209 than others, but their Presidential votes were not in question.

Asian Students and Multiethnic Desegregation

Are Asians in educational settings that are similar or different from other minorities? This study examines one key aspect of that question by comparing the level of racial segregation Asians face compared to other minority groups.

The Growth of Segregation in American Schools: Changing Patterns of Separation and Poverty Since 1968

Southern segregation grew significantly from 1988 to 1991 and segregation of African-American students across the U.S. also increased. This study provides national data that shows the relationship of segregation to poverty and where segregation is either concentrated or remains highly integrated. This report also explores the way in which a state's pattern of school district organization relates to the segregation of its students after the Supreme Court's 1974 decision in the Detroit case, Milliken v. Bradley.

Chilling Admissions: The Affirmative Action Crisis and the Search for Alternatives

The essays in this volume represent the work of the leading scholars of affirmative action in higher education, and place the current crisis on campus in its larger context of historical discrimination and the legal battle for educational equity.

Public School Desegregation in the United States, 1968 - 1980

Published by Joint Center for Political Studies, Washington, D.C.