Racial Bias, School Choice, and the Making of School Segregation in the 21st Century

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Twelve
  In Roundtable Session: Enrollment Patterns in Changing School Environments (Table 5)

Abstract

One theory for the rise in school racial segregation in recent decades is that school choice policies, which have grown in both geographic coverage and usage, allow households to express their racial preferences more so than traditional enrollment policies based on residence. In this paper, we combine national data on racial attitudes from Project Implicit with school choice and enrollment data from the Common Core of Data. Analysis from 205 metropolitan areas shows that the link between bias and segregation declined in most areas during this time as schools became slightly more integrated. However, for large metropolitan areas with school choice, the association between bias and segregation remained, implying that choice policies may facilitate biased places’ efforts to remain segregated.

Authors

• Tyler McDaniel, Stanford University
  Presenting Author

• Francis A. Pearman, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Darion A. Wallace, Stanford University
  Presenting Author