Diversifying High Schools in Racially Changing Suburban Districts: Expanding Opportunity, Creating Barriers?

• In Event: Race and Place: How Suburban Schools Respond to Increasing Racial Diversity

Abstract

Objectives
High schools occupy a complicated terrain in an educational system undergoing demographic transformation. They educate students going through rapid developmental change and yet are increasingly important in preparing them for higher education or work. Despite a variety of reforms, high school success has remained stagnant, and students from disadvantaged backgrounds are both growing rapidly and have the worst outcomes. This paper focuses on how suburban high schools respond to racial change and the effects on students’ educational opportunity.
Theoretical Perspectives
During court-ordered desegregation, a typical response to mandated school-level mixing was to create within-school segregation, particularly in high schools to shield white students from substantial interracial exposure at the classroom level (Mickelson, 2001; Clotfelter, 2004). In addition, other research has shown how social capital needed for attaining educational opportunities is often stratified along racial and class lines, and may further reinforce inequality and segregation (Lareau, 2003; Holme, 2002).
Data sources
We draw on data from the high school selected for more in-depth study. Three are majority white, and all have substantial shares of white students. Two high schools are similar to the district enrollment, two are disproportionately non-white, and two are disproportionately white. In most districts, the low-income percentage is similar to or lower than the district.
Analysis
The vast majority of interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Each transcript was coded for the ways in which schools conceptualized and responded to demographic change. Categories for coding were not predetermined but emerged from the data through open coding (Merriam, 2009). Informed by literature on school demographic change and response, we developed within-case memos for each site and then began cross-case analysis to compare themes and search for similarities and differences (Eisenhardt, 1989).
Findings
The high schools studied undertook changes aimed at both low and high-achieving students in ways that both expanded access but also created isolated programs within schools. In particular, there were strategies implemented to open access to advanced courses for more students of color. Realizing the importance of a high school diploma for students, these schools also undertook efforts aimed at increasing opportunity for “at-risk” students. High schools also implemented a variety of strategies to increase the knowledge of students and parents about necessary preparation for college. With the influx of students who are underrepresented in higher education and may be the first in their family to have college aspirations, a frequent response to demographic change was to institute programs like AVID to provide students social capital. Yet, barriers to opportunities remained that limited opportunities for students of color. Further, in four high schools, there was evidence of using academic programs to “compete” for advantaged students who might not otherwise choose them due to their reputation and/or disproportionate shares of low-income or minority students. In this way, the schools’ response may result in within-school inequity.
Significance
As the changing enrollments in suburban high schools alter school composition, it is important to understand whether and how this diversification may affect students’ educational opportunities, particularly those from historically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Author

• Erica Frankenberg, The Pennsylvania State University