Racial, Economic, and Linguistic Segregation: Analyzing Market Supports in the District of Columbia’s Public Charter Schools
Abstract
The author examines racial, economic, and linguistic segregation in the Washington, D.C. charter school system and asks, “Are government supports aimed at deterring segregation effective at preventing enrollment bias in charter schools?” The author shows that charter schools in Washington, D.C. remain heavily segregated even though market supports meant to deter racial, economic, and linguistic segregation have been adopted. The findings of this study are generalizable to other charter school systems because segregation is least likely to arise in D.C. charter schools. The results indicate that underlying market forces continue to create segregated schools and that further study and government supports are necessary to diversify public charter schools.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
References
21st Century School Fund. (2009). School enrollment projections and analysis. Washington, DC: Author.
Arias B. (2007, Winter). School desegregation, linguistic segregation and access to English for Latino students. Journal of Educational Controversy,2(1). Retrieved from http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/CEP/eJournal/v002n001/a008.shtml
Armor D. (1996). Forced justice: School desegregation and the law. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Ball S. J. (1993). Education markets, choice and social class. The market as a class strategy in the UK and the USA. British Journal of Sociology of Education,4(1), 3-19.
Banchero S. (2010, June 1). Race to top leaves some school reformers weary. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704366504575278512965173120.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Bartley N. V. (1999). The rise of massive resistance: Race and politics in the South during the 1950s. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press.
Braun Research Inc. (2009). Fork in the road: Where does the District go in K-12 education? Indianapolis, IN: Friedman Foundation.
Brown v. Board of Education (II), 349 U.S. 294 (1955).
Buckley K., Fisler J. (2003). A decade of charter schools: From theory to practice. Educational Policy, 17, 317-342.
Carhill A., Suárez-Orozco C. (2008). Explaining English language proficiency among adolescent immigrant students. American Educational Research Journal, 45, 1155-1179.
Carnoy M., Jacobsen R., Mishel L., Rothstein R. (2005). The charter school dust-up: Examining the evidence on enrollment and achievement. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Center for Education Reform. (2009). National charter school and enrollment statistics. Retrieved from http://www.edreform.com/_upload/CER_charter_numbers.pdf
CREDO. (2009). Multiple choice: Charter school performance in 16 states. Stanford, CA: Stanford University.
Darling-Hammond L. (2007). Race, inequality and educational accountability: The irony of “No Child Left Behind.” Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 10, 245-260.
D.C. Charter School Board. (2010). D.C. Public Charter School Board. Retrieved from http://www.dcpubliccharter.com
DC Public Charter Schools. (2009). District of Columbia Public Charter School Board: 2009 school performance report. Washington, DC: D.C. Public Charter School Board
DC Public Schools. (2010). District of Columbia public schools: Facts and statistics. Retrieved from http://dcps.dc.gov
Eckes S., Rapp K. (2005). Charter schools: Trends and implications. Readings on Education, 19, 1-26. New York, NY: AMS Press.
Eckes S., Trotter A. (2007). Are charter schools using recruitment strategies to increase student body diversity? Education and Urban Society, 40(1). 62-90.
Finn C. E. Jr., Manno B. V., Vanourek G. (2000). Charter schools in action: Renewing public education. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Frankenberg E., Lee C. (2003). Charter schools and race: A lost opportunity for integrated education. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 11(32).
Frankenberg E., Siegel-Hawley G., Wang J. (2010). Choice without equity: Charter school segregation and the need for civil rights standards. Los Angeles, CA: The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA
Fuller B., Elmore R., Orfield G. (1996). Who chooses? Who losses? Culture, institutions, and the unequal effects of school choice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Fuller B., Gawlik M., Gonzales E., Park S. (2003). Localized Ideas of Fairness: Inequality Among Charter Schools. In Bulkley K. E., Wohlstetter P. (Eds.), Taking account of charter schools: What’s happened and what’s next? (pp. 93-120). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Garcia D. (2008). Academic and racial Segregation in charter schools: Do parents sort students into specialized charter schools? Education and Urban Society, 40, 590-612
Garcia D., McIlroy L., Barber R. (2008). Starting behind: A comparative analysis of the academic standing of students entering charter schools. Social Science Quarterly, 89, 199-216.
Green P. (2001). Racial balancing provisions and charter schools: Are charter schools out on a constitutional limb? Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal, 1, 65-84.
Gutmann A. (1987). Democratic education. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hassel B. C. (1999). The charter school challenge: Avoiding the pitfalls, fulfilling the promise. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
Jeynes W. (2007). The relationship between parental involvement and urban secondary school student academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Urban Education, 42(1), 82-110.
Lacireno-Paquet N., Holyoke T., Moser M. (2002). Creaming versus cropping: Charter school enrollment practices in response to market incentives. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24, 145-158.
Lareau A. (1989). Home advantage. New York, NY: Crown Press.
Lubienski C. (2003). Innovation in education markets: Theory and evidence on the impact of competition and choice in charter schools. American Educational Research Journal, 40, 395-443.
Merrifield J. (2001). The school choice wars. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
Miron G., Urschel J. L., Mathis W.J., Tornquist E. (2010). Schools without diversity: Education management organizations, charter schools and the demographic stratification of the American school system. Boulder, CO: Education and the Public Interest Center and Education Policy Research Unit. Retrieved from http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/EMO-Seg.pdf
Murphy J., Shiffman C. (2002). Understanding and assessing the charter school movement. New York, NY: Teachers College Press
Muse B. (1961). Virginia’s massive resistance. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Nagel D. (2009, June 9). Charter school support is a prerequisite for Race to the Top funds. Journal. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/articles/2009/06/09/charter-school-support-is-a-prerequisite-for-race-to-the-top-funds.aspx
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. (2010). State charter school law database. Retrieved from http://www.publiccharters.org
Orfield G. (1995a). Segregated housing and school desegregation. In Orfield G., Eaton S. (Eds.), Dismantling desegregation: The quiet reversal of Brown v. Board of Education (pp. 291-330). New York, NY: New Press.
Orfield G. (1995b). Turning back on discrimination. In Orfield G., Eaton S. (Eds.), Dismantling desegregation: The quiet reversal of Brown v. Board of Education (pp. 291-330). New York, NY: New Press.
Rapp K., Eckes S. (2007). Dispelling the myth of “white flight”: An examination of minority enrollment in charter schools. Educational Policy, 21, 615-661.
Reardon S., Yun J. T. (2002). Private school racial enrollments and segregation. Cambridge, MA: Civil Rights Project.
RPP International. (2000). The state of charter schools: National study of charter schools, fourth-year report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
Schneider J. (1999). Five prevailing charter types. School Administrator, 56(7), 29-31.
Shober A., Manna P., Witte J. (2006). Flexibility meets accountability: State charter school laws and their influence on the formation of charter schools in the United States. Policy Studies Journal, 34, 563-587.
Smrekar C., Goldring E. (1999). School choice in urban America: Magnet schools and the pursuit of equity. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Stewart E. (2007). School structural characteristics, student effort, peer associations, and parental involvement: The influence of school- and individual-level factors on academic achievement. Education and Urban Society, 40, 179-204.
Thompson J. D. (2007). Pictures on the wall: Urban restructuring, gentrification and the struggle for place in 21st century Washington D.C. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). American University, Washington, DC.
Turque B. (2010, April 15). D.C. schools insider: DCPS enrollment projected to inch up next year. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/2010/04/dcps_enrollment_projected_to_i.html
U.S. Census Bureau. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/
U.S. Charter Schools. (2010). State by State #’s. Retrieved from http://www.uscharterschools.org/cs/sp/query/q/1595
U.S. Department of Education. (2009). States open to charters start fast in “Race to top.” Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/06/06082009a.html
Welch P. (2007). How can U.S. schools desegregate after the end of busing? Forum for Social Economics, 36(1). 53-62.
Biographies
Nicholas Jacobs is a senior political science and education major at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He has previously presented his work at the Virginia Social Science Association conference and is a winner of the National Pi Sigma Alpha essay competition.
Cite
Cite
Cite
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published online: August 8, 2011
Issue published: January 2013
Keywords
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Journals metrics
This article was published in Education and Urban Society.
View All Journal MetricsPublication usage*
Total views and downloads: 601
*Publication usage tracking started in December 2016
Publications citing this one
Receive email alerts when this publication is cited
Web of Science: 4 view articles Opens in new tab
Crossref: 4
- Pursuing Diversity: The Context, Practices, and Diversity Outcomes of Intentionally Diverse Charter Schools
- Education Politics and Policy: Emerging Institutions, Interests, and Ideas
- Measuring Between-School Segregation in an Open Enrollment System: The Case of Rio de Janeiro
- Narrowing Down the Determinants of Between-School Segregation: An Analysis of the Intake to All Schools in England, 1989–2011
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
I am signed in as:
View my profileSign out
I can access personal subscriptions, purchases, paired institutional access and free tools such as favourite journals, email alerts and saved searches.
loading institutional access options
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
