Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Down and Out of District
That's the title of a Beverly Hills 90210 episode in which Andrea is nearly found out for attending West Beverly High instead of her assigned high school, located in a lower-income part of town. While Andrea gets away with her illegal transfer, many students aren't able to cross district boundaries to attend a better school. In these cases, district boundaries serve as an artificial barrier to choice, often limiting school options to the low-performing schools within district boundaries -- boundaries that often reflect the racial and economic segregation of larger society.
It was this often arbitrary and segregating effect of district boundaries (and not the 90210 episode) that motivated us to look at the potential of interdistrict choice to offer more options to students in low-performing schools. To our surprise, we found that interdistrict choice on a large scale is unlikely to benefit a large percent of students - only 10 to 20 percent are likely to find a better school option (see the full report here).
Above, Dianne Piché, Executive Director of the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights and longtime civil rights advocate, responds to our report and offers her insight on what it means for the discussion on desegregation and school choice. Thanks to Dianne for her thoughtful comments--I expect that they will spark some good discussion about our conclusions and what those conclusions might mean for the future of interdistrict school choice. -- |
Comments