Tinsley's Court-Ordered Student Transfers in California: Examining Race and Place

• In Event: 72.046 - Learning From the Past: How Interdistrict Desegregation Policies Can Inform School Choice and Improvement Policies Today

Abstract

Objectives
This paper examines the Tinsley Voluntary Transfer Program in the northern California. Tinsley was the result of a 1986 court settlement, after 10 years of legal efforts resulting from racially motivated fights at an area high school (Lorenzo, 1998). The settlement requires seven receiving districts in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties to accept a certain number of students each year from the Ravenswood School District in East Palo Alto. Once a student is placed they are allowed to enroll in the new district through graduation unless they move out of East Palo Alto. This case provides a unique context to understand inter-district choice because it is situated in California in an area that has seen extreme gaps in wealth and demographic shifts across communities in the last several decades. This program allows us to examine both race and place through an examination of the original impetus for these policies compared with the perspectives and context today.

Perspectives
In this paper we focus stakeholders’ perceptions of the purpose of the original settlement and the role it plays in providing more equitable access and opportunity to students of color from the Ravenswood School District today. We also focus on demographic shifts in these communities and the challenges faced by educators in implementing a fixed solution designed more than 20 years ago. We use the geospatial literature (see, for example, Lubienski, et al, 2009) and GIS techniques through ArcGIS software to examine this case.

Methods & Modes of Inquiry
We draw upon interviews with eight individuals from various roles in the program including superintendents, principals of receiving schools and officials from the county’s board of education. Participants were intentionally selected to represent a cross-section of perspectives and stakeholder groups involved with the program. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were open coded to derive themes and sub-themes (Creswell, 2009; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). These data were triangulated with reports, newspaper stories, and program documents. GIS techniques were used to examine and trace demographic shifts across districts involved and the movement of participants across district boundaries in light of these changes.

Results & Significance of Study

Designed to address the racial isolation of students in the Ravenswood School District, today race is seen as a secondary issue according to stakeholders interviewed. Stakeholders noted that demographic shifts in communities that were once racially segregated and involved in the court case leading to the program’s creation has pushed race to the backburner while class and socioeconomic segregation moves to the forefront. As such they question the effectiveness of having a race-based program in the current community context. Other themes such as changes to per pupil funding and new statewide legislative mandates are also affecting the program’s administration and operation. GIS maps help to illuminate the changing patterns and call into question the limited spots associated with the settlement and ways that fixed available spots, though well intentioned, may have undermine efforts toward more integrated communities.

Authors

• Nadine D. Hylton, University of Rochester

• Kara S. Finnigan, University of Rochester