1 Building A Better Region by Assuring Healthy, Integrated Schools Hope in the Cities john a. powell Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Moritz College of Law & Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity November 9 th 2006

2 Overview of Presentation ► Racial and Economic Segregation in Schools  Causes of segregation in our Public Schools  Consequences of segregation  Policy solutions to reduce segregation in our schools

3 Causes

4 Causes of Segregation ► The link between housing and education  Segregation in our schools is a direct reflection of the racial and economic segregation in our neighborhoods  Housing and school segregation also reinforce each other ► Housing determines access to schools ► School quality determines access to housing (through the impact on price)

5 Spatial Trends ► Since 1970, African Americans have become less concentrated in the Richmond region as the region’s neighborhoods are growing less segregated  But segregation in the region’s public schools have not declined as quickly as segregation in neighborhoods (especially since 1990) ► What influences this?  Land use policy, exclusionary housing patterns, discrimination, court decisions ► Resulting in racial and economic segregation in urban school districts ► This economic segregation also impacts many low income White families

6 African American Segregation Trends and School Boundaries 1970 to 2000

7 African American-White Segregation Trends in Neighborhoods and Schools 1970, 1990 and 2000 Source: Mumford Center

8 Poverty Exposure and Race for School Children in the Richmond Region Source: Mumford Center

9 Consequences

10 Negative Factors Associated with High-Poverty Schools ► Inadequate funding & resources ► Negative peer influences ► Low levels of parental involvement ► Low expectations, lower standards ► Discipline problems ► Depressed academic achievement ► High student/teacher mobility Source: [1] Harris, D.N. (2006). Ending the Blame Game on Educational Inequality: A Study of ‘High Flying’ Schools and NCLB. Educational Policy Research Unit, Arizona State University.

11 Teacher Quality & Attrition Source: Helping Children Move from Bad Schools to Good Ones. Richard D. Kahlenberg. The Century Foundation. 6/15/2006

12 ► Academic ► Psychological ► Health ► Economic ► Employment ► Democratic Impact of Segregated Schools on Students and Society

13 Performance for Higher Poverty Schools in the Richmond Region ► High poverty schools do perform worse in the Richmond region, but the disparity is not as great as what our research has found to exist in other regions Source: School Matters, Standard and Poors Database

14 Performance for Higher Poverty Schools in the Richmond Region ► Why is the disparity gap for high and low poverty schools not as great as in other regions?  One factor impacting this trend is the relatively low number of high poverty schools in the region, especially extreme high poverty schools (with poverty rates of more than 80%), these extreme high poverty schools would experience the greatest cumulative impact of student poverty on student performance  For example ► 22% of schools in the Richmond region had poverty rates higher than 60%, in contrast nearly half of schools in Ohio’s major urban areas had poverty rates this high ► Less than 2% of the Richmond region’s schools had poverty rates higher than 80%, in comparison 20% of schools in Ohio’s major urban areas had poverty rates higher than 80% Source: School Matters, Standard and Poors Database

15 ► Why is the disparity gap for high and low poverty schools not as great as in other regions?  Teacher Quality ► 97.2% of the teachers in high-poverty schools are highly qualified  Richmond Renaissance Initiative – attracting and retaining high quality teachers to the district  Class Size ► Richmond City Public Schools: 13.4 student/teacher ratio ► Detroit City Schools: 16.6 student/teacher ratio Other Factors that may Help Mitigate the Effects of Higher Poverty Schools in the Richmond Region

16 Troubling Signs ► The relatively low number of extreme high poverty schools in Richmond is promising, but troubling trends in school poverty may threaten the future  Statewide, Virginia has seen an increase in the number of high poverty schools in recent years  Our analysis of federal school poverty data finds an increase in the proportion of high poverty schools (with poverty rates greater than 50%)  In % of schools were high poverty, by % of schools were high poverty Source: National Center for Education Statistics Note: Some schools could not be analyzed for this assessment due to missing data in the federal database

17 Implications for Richmond ► Richmond’s lower rates of school poverty (in comparison to other more segregated districts like Cleveland or Detroit), make strategic interventions to reduce economic segregation less disruptive and more plausible to implement ► The region could also move toward addressing reforms outside of economic school desegregation strategies  Detracking, disciplinary reform, reforms to promote democratic merit

18 Societal Implications ► Segregation has broader impacts beyond just student outcomes in the classroom  Segregation fuels other large regional issues impacting the health of everyone ► The link between sprawl/inner city flight and school quality  Concern about school quality is the primary reason for households who decide to leave urban neighborhoods  Segregation degrades educational outcomes (e.g. indicators of school quality) and influences the flight of families from urban school districts ► Reinforces residential segregation in our neighborhoods

19 Cycle of Segregation Lower Educational Outcomes for Urban School Districts Increased Flight of Affluent Families from Urban Areas Neighborhood (Housing) Segregation School Segregation

20 Societal Implications ► Linked fates: Racial and economic segregation produces underperforming schools, which harms everyone in the long run  Inequality is a sign of an economically/socially inefficient region, where proper investments are not made in human capital, and where much of the population can not meet its creative potential  The region loses its competitive edge in the global economy due to inequitable schools that produce an unprepared labor force

21 Solutions “The notion that all children perform better in middle-class schools than in poverty-concentrated schools is the most consistent findings in research on education.” -Gary Orfield Cited in Divided We Fail: Coming Together Through Public School Choice.

22 Solutions to Segregation ► Need sustainable, system-wide reform ► Because opportunities are distributed geographically, the solution must have the scope and breadth to disrupt the current arrangement  Schools reflect racial, ethnic and SES segregation of the region ► Integration  By Race- increasingly under legal attack  By Socioeconomic Status- because of the high correlation between race and poverty, integration by SES can achieve both

23 Benefits of Economic Integration ► Increased student expectations ► Access to social capital ► Positive impact on cognitive development for ALL ► Improved academic achievement ► Schools better able to attract and retain teachers ► Lower drop out rates ► Higher career aspirations ► Students more likely to attend college ► Fewer incidents with police ► Students less likely to become teenage parents

24 Achieving Economic Integration ► District magnet/charter schools  Create high-quality magnet schools with academic, economic thresholds ► Wake County Raleigh, NC  No more than 40% low income  No more than 25% performing below grade level on state reading test  Results ► Black students: 40% to 80% grade level on standardized tests ► Hispanic students: 79% to 91%.

25 ► Suburban schools: designated vouchers/choice plan  Provide academic support, transportation  Connect to regional housing policies ► Minneapolis Choice is Yours  Urban students are given priority placement in suburban or magnet schools of their choice  Participants outperformed their peers, with scores in reading and mathematics that were respectively 23 and 25 percentile points higher Achieving Economic Integration

26 Working Outside of the Classroom ► Income and housing are two other points of intervention to address economic segregation in our schools  Income strategies: Improving the income/assets of low income families, producing greater housing choice ► Maximizing use of the Earned Income Tax Credit, Minimum Wage Campaigns  Housing strategies: Segregation in our schools can also be addressed by expanding housing opportunities for low income families in more affluent school districts ► Looking at Inclusionary Zoning and Targeting of Subsidized Housing

27 Conclusion: A Call for Cooperation ► Why do we need cooperation between the region’s communities to address concentrations of poverty and disparity?  Linked fates – the region’s disparities harm everyone, producing harms that endanger not only those directly impacted but limiting the future of everyone ► Through collective imagination, we need to define what the future should look like  A New Paradigm! Targeted Universalism ► What is our alternative vision?  A model where we all grow together  A model where we embrace collective solutions  This vision requires collective action and will require coalitions to be successful

28 Questions or Comments? For More Information Visit Us On-Line: