Debating Equity through Integration: School Officials’ Decision-Making and Community Advocacy During a School Rezoning in Williamsburg, Virginia

Abstract

We explore puzzling outcomes in a Virginia school district: in 2018, the Williamsburg-James City County School Board voted to redraw attendance boundaries to achieve greater racial and socio-economic integration among its middle schools, yet abandoned similar efforts for high schools. Drawing on Critical Race perspectives, we conducted a content analysis of archival materials, including school board meeting transcripts, to analyze the conditions under which school decision-makers mobilize to enact equity-oriented policy reforms. We found that school board members abandoned high school rezoning in the face of fierce opposition from white, affluent residents who saw school reassignments as a threat to their entitlements to a highly rated school and to their property values. For the middle schools, board members avoided white families’ entitlements, which neutralized opposition, at the same time as strong community advocacy in favor of equity and integration shifted the political landscape. This activated ‘interest convergence’ among school board members supportive of equity and resulted in the approval of middle-school attendance boundaries that produced greater racial and socioeconomic integration. This case underscores the importance of community advocacy for equity-based reforms; however, the scope of these efforts may be limited to changes that do not substantively threaten white parents’ perceived entitlements.

“This is not going to be a quick fix”: a grounded theory study of superintendents leading school integration through redistricting

“…Our results present additional examples of superintendents capitalizing on existing needs to redraw attendance boundaries as opportunities to further racial and socioeconomic school integration (e.g. Kornblau, 2019; Mendez and Quark, 2022). Our findings diverge somewhat from prior redistricting research that depicted pushback from parents who were attached to their children's current schools or held biases about racially diverse schools (e.g.…”

“…Castro et al. , 2022a; Mendez and Quark, 2022) and enriches the pool of more descriptive research into school integration initiatives (e.g. Frankenberg and Kotok, 2013; Quick and Damante, 2016; Siegel-Hawley et al ., 2017; Taylor and Frankenberg, 2021).…”

“…, 2020). Parents who choose particular neighborhoods because of the schools believe their children are entitled to attend them and resist integration efforts that require their children to change schools (Mendez and Quark, 2022). Even voluntary school choice policies can increase segregation when affluent parents deploy their ample human, social and financial capital to enroll their children in relatively homogeneous charter or magnet schools (Frankenberg and Kotok, 2013; Sattin-Bajaj and Roda, 2020).…”

“…, 2018). Due in part to these legal and political constraints, many superintendents focus primarily on socioeconomic integration (Kahlenberg, 2007) and some of them capitalize on school overcrowding or the construction of new schools as opportunities to both redistrict and diversify their schools (Kornblau, 2019; Mendez and Quark, 2022). Such strategies may generate less pushback than integration solely for the purpose of racial balancing (Mendez and Quark, 2022).…”

“…Castro et al. , 2022a, b; Frankenberg and Kotok, 2013; Lareau et al., 2018; Mendez and Quark, 2022). As a result, there is a gap in the literature detailing the integration process within suburban schools in the United States from a leadership perspective.…”