Synthesis

During the last few decades, the social science evidence on the educational benefits of integrated education for all students has become more definitive. Social science research methods have improved our ability to investigate the complexity of the real world in which students learn. These new research tools model the fact that students are nested in schools. For example, multilevel modeling offers a clearer interpretation of the relative effects of school characteristics (including racial composition) and family background (including race/ethnicity and social class) on students’ academic outcomes.

The preponderance of findings from this newer social science, behavioral and educational research indicates racial composition matters for educational outcomes in the following ways:

• Desegregated schools and classrooms have positive effects on mathematics and science achievement.
• Positive effects can occur at the elementary, middle and high school levels.
• Students from all racial and social class backgrounds are likley to demonstrate higher achievement in racially balanced schools. To be sure, there are variations in the size of the effects by state, by subject matter, school level, student social class, and ethnic group.
• Racial isolation has harmful effects on the achievement of African- American and many Latino students. Research is less clear about harmful effects of racial isolation on Whites and Asian Americans, although there are some studies that indicate racially-isolated White schools may not be optimal for Whites either.
• The ways that schools and classrooms are organized contribute to the opportunities to learn within them. Compared to racially-isolated minority schools, diverse schools and classrooms are more likely to offer higher quality and greater equity in opportunities to learn in terms of:
  • Teacher quality and material resources.
  • Depth and breadth of curricular coverage, including more AP courses and other forms of enrichment.
  • A positive academic climate in terms of higher expectations from teachers and peers.
  • Stability of teaching staff and student populations.
• Academic tracking, ability grouping and special education programs (including those for gifted children) often resegregate desegregated schools. Tracking within desegregated schools can dilute the effects of school integration on achievement because African-American and Latino students are more likely to be found in lower tracks than their White and Asian-American peers with comparable prior achievement, family background and other characteristics.
• A school’s racial composition is related to but not equivalent to its socioeconomic composition. Both the racial and socioeconomic composition of a school affect achievement outcomes.