Year: 2015
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Desegregation policies have been rolled back across the country. Some advocates for dismantling desegregation argue that resources allocated to desegregation would pay off better if allocated to improve education in schools with disadvantaged populations. We test this claim by examining student achievement before, during, and after the end of court-ordered desegregation in Nashville, Tennessee. School-by-grade fixed effect models reveal no evidence that increases in a school’s proportion of Black students impeded achievement growth. Increased exposure to students in poverty curtailed achievement growth, but enhanced option schools, which bring extraordinary resources to high-poverty, racially isolated schools, compensated for the effects of concentrated poverty. Schools that became specialized magnet schools, however, did not contribute to achievement gains and in some cases curtailed growth.
Authors: Adam Gamoran, Brian P. An
Institutions: University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Iowa
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: University of Wisconsin-Madison
OpenAlex ID: W2231097519