Building Evidence to Advance Meaningful Integration in New York City

• In Event: Why New York City School Desegregation Requires Systemic Thinking: A Transdisciplinary Conversation

Abstract

Objective:
Historically, systemic school integration efforts have been undermined by sloppy implementation and racist backlash from White communities (Johnson, 2019). This limited the extent to which schools became more racially representative and students of color were equitably included in them (Bell, 2004; Horsford, 2011).

However, beginning in 2019, one community school district (CSD) in NYC has implemented an ambitious “diversity plan” to make its middle schools more representative of the CSD and to foster inclusive learning environments for all students. Learning about this plan’s implementation provides an opportunity to examine whether and how integration efforts can change school practices.

Theoretical framework:
We argue that for schools in this CSD to be meaningfully integrated, there are two important benchmarks that should be met.

First, schools need to be desegregated--or see enrollment shifts to become more representative of their CSD--due to the revised admissions policies in the diversity plan. In this CSD, school staff can facilitate desegregation by changing how and when families learn about their school and offering transportation options so students can more easily attend.

Second, schools must foster inclusive learning environments where historically marginalized students are affirmed and supported (Lewis & Diamond, 2015; Lewis-McCoy, 2014). We focus on two school practices meant to facilitate inclusive learning environments--the implementation of culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogy and restorative discipline practices.

Methods:
To understand the implementation of this CSD’s diversity plan, we surveyed school staff and parent leaders tasked with implementing changes to school practice at all 11 middle schools in the CSD.

Although we primarily share descriptive analyses of our survey data in this submission, we triangulate these results with our analyses of CSD-wide documents about the diversity plan, interviews with school leaders, and administrative records from each school.

Data sources:
Our survey was fielded in June 2021 and had a response rate of 30% (N=29). We have responses from staff at all 11 schools in the CSD.

Results:
Our analysis of the survey data highlights two key findings related to the implementation of the diversity plan in this CSD.

First, respondents were more likely to report that their schools implemented practices to desegregate their school than to implement inclusive practices. For instance, almost three in four respondents indicated that their school had provided opportunities for new parents to learn about the school but less than a third of respondents agreed that their schools had been able to implement changes to curricula and pedagogy.

Second, in regards to inclusive practices, schools were far more likely to implement changes to school discipline than to classroom instruction. Over half of the respondents in our survey reported that their schools implemented restorative disciplinary practices while less than a quarter reported that they implemented culturally relevant curricula and pedagogy.

Significance:
Our study offers the opportunity to examine whether--and how--school-based practices have shifted as a result of a CSD-wide diversity plan. It also illuminates how implementation of practices to desegregate schools might precede implementation of inclusive practices, highlighting the challenge of fostering meaningful school integration.

Authors

• Zitsi Mirakhur, University of Kentucky

• Kathryn Hill, Research Alliance for New York City Schools

• Jennifer Maldonado

• Lianna Wright