What Can We Learn From Regional Desegregation Plans?

• In Event: Diversity by Design: New Visions for School Districts That Serve All Students

Abstract

The third panelist has written extensively on the topics of low-performing schools and accountability policies; school choice, including charter schools and inter-district choice; social networks, trust, and school and district improvement and principal leadership. She is a nationally recognized authority on regional desegregation plans. A regional desegregation plan is one that crosses district boundaries in a region to share resources and create a system of public schools to not only improve integration but also to improve opportunities and better meet the needs of diverse students and families. Her research has focused on the 13 metropolitan areas in 10 states that have undertaken interdistrict desegregation plans to varying degrees.

On this panel, she will explore the purpose, design and outcomes associated with the regional plan for Omaha, Nebraska, as this plan was one of the most comprehensive undertaken and much can be learned from its history since its inception in 2006. She will focus on the competitive dynamics in local regions that must be tackled to address the underlying politics that work against regional equity (and toward maintaining a segregated system of schools and districts). She will discuss the multi-faceted policy approach that builds upon Omaha’s efforts and involves a combination of assignment policies, siting of schools, and funding approaches. Several questions come to mind: To what degree are the schools in the region desegregated? How are resources shared? How are such efforts sustained over time? What are the major lessons for the future?

The essential question this panelist will address is: What can we learn from regional desegregation plans that inform the future of bridging across school district boundaries to expand attendance zones to be more equitable and inclusive and to reduce the structural inequities built into our current fragmented public school system?

Author

• Kara S. Finnigan, University of Rochester