The two readings, School Choice Policies and Racial Segregation: Where White Parents’ Good Intentions, Anxiety, and Privilege Collide and Is Demography Still Destiny, both explore the relationship between school “choice” and its impact on students of different backgrounds (in particular white families and students of color) and neighborhoods.
Roda and Wells briefly discussed the impact of magnet schools, which does pertain in some ways to Jamaica H.S. since the opening of magnet school Townsend Harris resulted in a “brain drain” from Jamaica H.S. Additional, the idea of “bad” and “good” schools (as defined in the minds of white families) does pertain to Jamaica H.S. and the four new schools since they are deemed as a “poor performing” school by more endowed and privileged families that have “better” options available to them. However, between the two readings, the study conducted by Annenberg Institute for School Reform relates most our school profile of Jamaica High School. This study looks at the relationship between neighborhood, demographics, family background, and the impact they have on the schools they attend. Additionally, the study sought to explore the impact of the Bloomberg administrations new policy of allowing a “choice” of high schools, in which students could apply to attend a high school that they were not zoned for. The study showed that most students first choice schools were less racially isolated than their middle school, however, the school they actually ended up attending were more similar to their middle school. The study concluded that while there were more choices, it did little to increase the “systematic equity of opportunity” for students of color, low socio-economic status, or students that came from poor middle schools or families with a low educational background.
The major difference between the four new high schools of Jamaica and the original Jamaica H.S. is the student achievement. Student achievement of the four new schools compared to Jamaica H.S. is significantly higher. This is due to the type of students coming into the school, who are required to meet a certain cut off in terms of academics. This new admissions policy is contrary to the original acceptance policy where students have to apply or were zoned. The new schools are strictly schools of choice. In the Annenberg study, a suggestion to help address creating more opportunities to disadvantaged students (within the Bloomberg policy of school choices) was the ed. opt. Through this, schools kept a certain amount of seats open for students who might not meet the schools’ criteria, but could still do well in the school given the proper resources. While we do not know where the students of the four new Jamaica H.S.s are applying from, we do know that they are more ethnically diverse and still have a high percentage of students that are from lower socioeconomic backgrounds (indicated by the percentage of students that qualify for FRL). All four school’s admission policy is through ed. opt. and, to some form of limited screening.
Past readings explored how disadvantaged students (racial, economic, social, or neighborhood wise) lack the opportunity to study in a school that they were not assigned to. However, these two readings show how even provided with the choice of schools (or the illusion of choice), this policy still fails to create systematic equal opportunities.
This weeks reading “School Choice Policies and Racial Segregation: Where White Parents’ Good Intentions, Anxiety, and Privilege Collide” by Allison Roda and Amy Stuart Wells and “Is Demography Still Destiny” by Norm Fruchter because for the first time in this course we are examining if integration is even wanted on a student level. up until now, we have been discussing external factors such as governance and systemic problems that cause segregation in schools, but these articles are unique in that they look at things from the perspective of students in and applying to these schools. The findings that most students first choice schools had a higher racial diversity than their middle schools, yet typically ended up attending a high school with more similar racial demographics to their middle school. This also suggests that students would prefer to interact with other races, yet aren’t given the opportunity to. Interestingly, much of the conversation from these articles in class seemed to posit or at least rationalize the idea that students would want to attend schools with people they feel are like them, or their own people; basically, those who come from a similar culture as them, which often corresponds to race and ethnicity. This conversation is why I feel these readings are important because our general notion/idea shared by most of the class turned out to be false: most students do seek racial diversity, but don’t get the opportunity to experience it. Although our class discussion suggest that students may not want diversity, the readings show that they do. As I mentioned in class I am still curious who co-ed vs single sex schools relate to this as a fascinating comparison point, but the readings don’t address it. Either way, these readings are interesting for their unique vantage point on the issue we have been discussing and what it reveals about the problem by looking at it from this angle.
Thanks for these posts. Ashely-Mei, you address how admissions criteria can affect who attends which schools, which matched with Demian’s post focused on the idea that students (and their families) prefer more diverse schools than they attend, raises some questions about how choice systems might be preventing us from getting the kinds of schools that we want. Can we imagine a system of student assignment that would aid in achieving diversity? One challenge, of course, would be to define diversity.