Public School Choice and Integration Evidence from Durham, North Carolina

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Abstract

This paper uses evidence from Durham, North Carolina to examine the impact of school choice on racial and class-based segregation across schools. The findings suggest that school choice increases segregation. Furthermore, the effects of choice on segregation by class are larger than the effects on segregation by race. These results are consistent with the theoretical argument—developed in sociology and economics literature—that the segregating choices of students from advantaged backgrounds are likely to outweigh any integrating choices by disadvantaged students.

Introduction

Two U.S. Supreme Court cases more than 50 years apart highlight the struggle over race and schooling in the U.S. At one end is Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which ended the de jure racial segregation of schools, and ultimately forced districts to integrate their schools. At the other is the 2007 Supreme Court ruling that prohibits districts from using race as a factor in the assignment of students to schools. During the period between the two rulings, attitudes about the potential for parental choice of schools to play a positive role in integrating schools have changed quite significantly. While choice programs served as a means for many white families to avoid racially integrated schools during the 1950s and the 1960s and, hence, represented a significant obstacle to racial integration, the 1970s to the 1990s witnessed the development of new choice programs, primarily in the form of magnet schools or controlled choice programs, intended to promote racial integration. At the same time that such programs gave families more choice over their children’s schools, policy makers typically retained control over school assignments by placing limits on the extent to which individual schools could be racially unbalanced.

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled out the use of race-based considerations in school assignments, the question arises of what role parental choice of schools will play in the future with respect to racial or other forms of school segregation. On the one hand are those who fear that unfettered choice systems will increase school segregation. On the other are those who believe that choice programs can continue to play a positive role in integrating schools and may be the only option available in light of the recent Supreme Court decision.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on this question by examining the effects of several types of school choice programs on school segregation in Durham, NC. This urban school district represents a useful case study not only because it provides parents with a variety of different choice programs, but also because none of those programs are explicitly restricted by race. Thus, the patterns we observe are in response to programs that are consistent with the new Supreme Court ruling. Further, as we discuss below, detailed data on student addresses, assigned school zones, and current schools makes it possible for us to determine which types of students opt for which types of schools and how those choices affect the peer groups of different types of students.

Only two previous studies have had access to this type of data: Saporito (2003) for Philadelphia and Cullen, Jabob, and Levitt (2005) for Chicago. Both of these studies, however, focus on large, central city school districts which are composed predominantly of minority and low income students. Our study uses data from the Durham Public School system in North Carolina, which is a large countywide school district. Our study is the first of this type to examine the effect of choice on segregation in a school district that contains significant student diversity by race, income, and education level of the parents.

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The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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