Reply to What can be done to level the playing field?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's true that integrated/socio-economically diverse schools bring up test scores for disadvantaged students in a way that more funding thrown at hypersegregated schools doesn't. But the gap doesn't disappear.

I am a strong believer in encouraging school systems to reduce pockets of segregation. They can incentivize going to school out of zone through specialty programs (transportation must be provided or else this is just a way to further advantage already advantaged people). "Minority to majority" transfer programs (giving preference via an otherwise blind lottery for students who would be a minority at the school they're applying to) can also help. And of course, encouraging people to consider their local schools if they are being overlooked due to "test scores" (which is usually code for "I don't think enough people like me go to this school").

To answer your original question, it seems from research that it is simply having that diversity of economic conditions in a school that makes the difference. We can imagine why, certainly . . . compare two schools that pay teachers the same, but one is hypersegregated and pulls almost entirely from a public housing court, whereas another has students in public housing all the way up to students with second homes. A teacher is just one person . . . how much can they accomplish in the hypersegregated classroom, versus how much in a classroom where students who haven't had any advantages are only a fraction and there are parent volunteers and PTA money for extras?

Of course, I want us to pay teachers more, fund schools better, etc. But I also believe that diverse schools are good for all of us, and I'm happy to send my kids to them. No child should be attending a Jim Crow school in 2022.[/quote]

Is this the research you are referring to? 
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303150859_Housing_policy_is_school_policy_Economically_integrative_housing_promotes_academic_success_in_Montgomery_County_Maryland/link/57cec5d308ae057987abf9b8/download

It's an interesting study. Having access to a low-poverty school's resources and peer effect is important. However, this study looked at students whose families moved into subsidized housing in low-poverty areas and thus attended low-poverty schools. Living in a low-poverty area would likely help boost achievement as well. It is hard to know the relative contributions of 1) living and 2) going to school in low poverty areas.[b] It would be interesting to look at achievement changes for students who are bussed to low-poverty schools but continue to live in high-poverty areas.[/b] That might help identify the relative effects.[/quote]

Yes to the bolded. I've tried to find studies like you reference but came up blank. The Montgomery County study is routinely cited to support school reassignment, even though it only deals with young children and involved a community that included lower-income families living in and attending school in a higher-income area.[/quote]

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