Conclusion Putting Integration (Back?) on the Education Policy Agenda

Abstract

New York City is known for its incredible racial/ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. It is also notorious for being the third most segregated school system in the country.¹ This segregation occurs both between schools and within schools that house self-contained G&T or dual language programs.² Gary Orfield, a civil rights scholar, writes about the condition of New York City school segregation in a recent UCLA Civil Rights Report, stating, “This is ultimately a discussion about choice. Choice can either increase opportunity and integration, or increase inequality and stratification.”³ The parent interview data has shown that using G&T programs to attract White families into the public school system can, by default, desegregate schools, but can also result in “desegregation without integration,”⁴ academic and social stigmas, marginalized parent communities, and a divisive school culture between the haves and have-nots. Over time, this practice can also result in a more White and higher-income school overall, as White catchment students enroll in the Gen Ed program and Black and Latino students are no longer bused in to fill the Gen Ed seats.