Identifying Barriers to Access in Buffalo Public Schools

• In Event: School Choice, Stratification, and Civil Rights: The Buffalo Story

Abstract

In 2014, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) investigated Buffalo Public Schools (BPS), to determine if minority students were being excluded from criteria-based schools within the district. OCR’s inquiry discovered that minority students were accessing criteria-based schools at significantly lower rates than their white counterparts. As such, our research team was tasked to examine factors that impede minority students from attending criteria-based schools. Therefore, it was important to take into account the multiple stakeholders’ perspectives to gain insight on ways to make the choice system equitable. Thus, this paper examines what BPS administrators, parents, and students deemed as barriers adversely affecting minority student access into criteria-based schools.

Magnet programs that intentionally promote desegregation have typically designed policies which include whole school magnets, open enrollment, outreach to individuals and communities, and free transportation (Authors, 2013b). Thus, the identification of barriers associated with accessing and enrolling in BPS’s magnet schools was salient for developing recommendations to ensure diversity within criteria-based schools across the district.

The research team employed qualitative semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups to investigate barriers related to the recruitment, application, and enrollment process for criteria-based schools in BPS. Responses were then coded to identify recurring themes across the three participant groups.

Our data sources consisted of qualitative feedback from Buffalo parents, students, and principals. We received feedback on recruitment, outreach, communication, information, transportation, preparation in earlier grades, admissions criteria, enrollment and registration policies, and support for English Language Learners (ELLs) and students with disabilities.

From these multiple sources, we were able to identify the following key barriers to accessing the criteria schools: the admissions tests, inconvenient testing locations and schedules, limited availability of seats offered to attend criteria-based schools, and the presence of elementary schools that lack rigor and have limited course offerings, thus keeping students both competitively unprepared as well as ineligible for admittance into criteria-based schools. Complexity and lack of clarity surrounding the admissions policies, the application itself, and lack of accessible district staff to guide and direct parents and students through this process posed additional barriers. Lastly, we found lack of district communication and outreach to be significant barriers, particularly for ELLs and their parents.

Our findings contribute to the existing research on how to make access to magnet schools more equitable and provide school and district administrators with useful information about the types of barriers they should try to avoid when designing magnet programs and admissions policies. This research also highlights the importance of easily accessible, comprehensive application information in order to provide equal access for all students.

Authors

• Brian Woodward, University of California - Los Angeles

• Natasha Amlani