Brown Fades: The End of Court‐Ordered School Desegregation and the Resegregation of American Public Schools

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate whether the school desegregation produced by court‐ordered desegregation plans persists when school districts are released from court oversight. Over 200 medium‐sized and large districts were released from desegregation court orders from 1991 to 2009. We find that racial school segregation in these districts increased gradually following release from court order, relative to the trends in segregation in districts remaining under court order. These increases are more pronounced in the South, in elementary grades, and in districts where prerelease school segregation levels were low. These results suggest that court‐ordered desegregation plans are effective in reducing racial school segregation, but that their effects fade over time in the absence of continued court oversight.

Paying for School Choice: Availability Differences among Local Education Markets

“…cess to diverse and integrated school environments (Denton, 1995;Reardon, Grewal, Kalogrides, & Greenberg, 2012;Rivkin & Welch, 2006;W.J. Wilson, 2012).…”

Effects of School Segregation and School Resources in a Changing Policy Context

“…However, as Reardon et al (2012) pointed out, the resegregation patterns of today are occurring in a very different climate than that which surrounded the desegregation efforts of decades ago, with some districts attempting to match changes in school assignment policies with resources directed to high-need students. As a result, resegregation may or may not result in a return to the degree of achievement inequalities that accompanied segregation.…”

Lessons from a Federal Grant for School Diversity: Tracing a Theory of Change and Implementation of Local Policies

“…Despite evidence of its harms, school segregation is on the rise. Some of the increase is due to the end of desegregation orders in the south (Reardon et al, 2012). In addition to the end of judicial oversight, the rise of market-based types of school choice, district boundary lines, and stubborn patterns of residential segregation all help to explain these patterns of segregation in public schools.…”