Examining a Neighborhood Schools Student Assignment Plan and Student Outcomes in a North Carolina District

• In Event: Design and Implementation of Current Education Policies

Abstract

When unified status was granted to numerous school districts, school boards across the country developed redistricting plans to develop neighborhood schools. Social justice advocates decried these plans as they reversed over 40 years of progress by often resegregating schools homogenously grouped by race and wealth. Using piecewise and difference in difference regression with publicly facing data, this study assessed the association between neighborhood school attendance plans and school racial and economic balance and student reading achievement. The results indicate that over an 18-year period 1) schools became more racially and economically segregated, 2) the achievement of students of color decreased, and 3) achievement gaps between white students and students of color widened. Policy and societal implications are discussed.

Author

• Theodore S. Kaniuka, Fayetteville State University
  Presenting Author