Economic Segregation Challenging Ohios Public Schools

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Economic SegregationChallenging Ohios Public
Schools

• October 14th 2006
• Rebecca Reno
• Research Associate
• Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and
  Ethnicity
• The Ohio State University
• http//www.kirwaninstitute.org/

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Housing Policy is Education Policy

• The racial makeup of neighborhoods is the most
  important determinant of the racial composition
  of schools
• Low-performing urban schools drive sprawl1
• housing discrimination school segregation
• School segregation has been steadily increasing
  in the 90s2
• Half of all African American students attend a
  central city district
• Only 1 in 6 white students does

Source 1. Determinants of Residential Location
Choice How Important Are Local Public Goods in
Attracting Homeowners to Central City Locations?
Isaac Bayoh, Elena G. Irwin, Timothy Haab 2.
David Rusk. Trends in School Segregation in
Divided we Fail Coming Together through Public
School Choice. The Report of the Century
Foundation Task Force on the Common School. 2002.

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Nexus Between Economic Racial Segregation

• Strong correlation nearly all schools with a
  majority of students of color are high poverty
• The average White student attends a school with
  student poverty ranging from 23-30
• For the average African American student, school
  poverty ranges from 61-78

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Segregation in Ohios Schools

• Cleveland
• Cleveland Municipal School District
• 70 African American, 100 free reduced lunch
• Cuyahoga Heights
• 97 White, 10 free reduced lunch
• Columbus
• Columbus Public Schools
• 63 African American, 64 free reduced lunch
• Grandview Heights High School
• 95 White, 11 free reduced lunch

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Why Segregation Matters School Quality

• Ohios public school classification system
• Excellent
• Effective
• Continuous Improvement
• Academic Watch
• Academic Emergency
• Of all high poverty schools, 94.4 are classified
  in the lowest three categories
• In no case in Ohio does a high-poverty school
  outperform a non-high poverty school

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Why Segregation Matters

• Harms of Racial and Economic Segregation
• Academic
• Psychological
• Health
• Economical- student, society
• Employment
• Democratic

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Factors that Impact Education

• Home Environment
• Health
• Violence
• Housing (Stability Quality)
• Parent Education SES
• Student Factors
• Institutional Factors
• Funding
• Racial Segregation
• Socioeconomic Segregation

• Out of School Factors
• Early Childhood Education
• Community Engagement Resources
• In-School Factors
• Curriculum/Pedagogy
• Tracking
• Teacher Quality
• Student Teacher Attrition
• Teacher/Staff/Administrative Diversity
• Special Education/Discipline

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Desegregating and Improving School Quality

• Economic Desegregation
• 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.

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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

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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.

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Achieving Economic Integration

• 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

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Initiatives of the Kirwan Institute

• Advocacy- spreading the word
• Regional efforts
• Battle Creek, MI
• Cleveland
• Cincinnati

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Questions or Comments? For More Information
Visit Us On-Linewww.KirwanInstitute.org