Desegregation planning and educational equity

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4254871
AutoresRonald R Edmonds (Harvard University Press), Charles W Cheng (University of California, Los Angeles), Robert G Newby (Wayne State University)
Año1978
Volumen17
Número1
Páginas12-16
Fecha de publicación1978-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaTheory Into Practice (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0040-5841 • E-ISSN: 1527-2532
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00405847809542736
OpenAlexW2021294122
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas10

Robert G. Newby College of Education Wayne State University Detroit, Michigan To be just, the American social order must seek equity for all its people. Judged by such a standard, American public schooling is our social order's most dramatic example of inequity. The best schooling is for white middle-class children, while the worst is for black poor children. Pupil performance data of the past decade, analyzed by race and social class, does not suggest any substantial improvement in the relationship between pupil performance and school response to pupil color and social class. How well children do in school depends on how fairly or unfairly schools respond to children of differing family backgrounds. Effective instruction for the children of the poor is not now, nor does it promise soon to be, a widespread characteristic of public schooling. Thus, those of us who seek equity in our social order must seize every opportunity to improve the quality of public schooling. The discussion that follows will make every effort to be clear and consistent in using the words integration, segregation, and desegregation. We define school integration as a setting in which blacks and whites meet as institutional equals with each having equal access to the rights and privileges that characterize the school. We define school segregation as the creation and maintenance of racially separate classrooms or buildings by the use of official sanctions. We define desegregation as the attempt to eliminate racial discrimination in the assigning of pupils to classrooms or buildings. Desegregation is most often attempted by planning for racial balance, which means assigning children to classrooms and buildings in approximate proportion to the overall racial composition of the school district. Our effort to be consistent in using these key words will be somewhat confounded by the confusing nature of their use in desegregation literature. Judges, attorneys, and social scientists have tended to define these words on the basis of their attitudes toward race. It is especially confusing to note that predominantly black schools are often defined as segregated without regard to how they came to be predominantly black. We hope not to contribute to such confusion. Court-ordered desegregation is usually the greatest opportunity for reform that occurs in urban school districts. That is so because school districts like Boston and Chicago seem capable of forever failing to educate children who are poor. The politics of educational decision-making in such school districts does not require school officials to be instructionally effective for children who are poor. Candidates for city council and school board who campaign on behalf of the poor rarely get elected. Efforts at neighborhood school reform are not usually successful in ways that 12 Theory Into Practice

Desegregation · Educational Equity · Equity (law · Middle class · Pedagogy · Political science · Sanctions · Social class · Sociology · Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities · Law · Public Administration · School Choice and Performance · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies