Giving Compass' Take:

• Andre Perry argues that data is needed to fully describe the benefits of integrated schools in order to convince stakeholders to prioritize integration. 

• How can philanthropy help encourage the integration of schools? How can funding be directed to gather data around the harms of segregation to support the movement? 

• The data on segregation rates isn't good: Memphis school segregation is worse than it was 50 years ago.

In Washington, D.C., for instance, private schools proliferate in the white, wealthier areas of the city and majority-black charter schools are situated in the black, poorer neighborhoods. The longevity of segregation is manifested in the permanency of brick-and-mortar schools.

School advocates strongly sway educational markets by signifying how we should view quality. For instance, to entice prospective parents, school voucher advocates often employ rhetoric about students being “trapped in public schools” without giving tangible evidence that the private schools the voucher gives them access to are any better. These marketing ploys play on the minds of people who wrongly equate exclusivity with quality and public with inferiority.

Researchers have not done a great job identifying the benefits of diversity, partly because the number of diverse public schools is dwindling. According to a 2016 analysis by the UCLA Civil Rights Project, the number of public schools with zero to 10 percent white enrollment has more than tripled six decades after Brown. Nevertheless, a robust case for integration is wanting. It seems obvious that diversity would make everyone smarter and white people less racist, but there’s not enough research to make a full-throated, empirically-driven argument for integration.

Read the full article about diversity data by Andre Perry at The Hechinger Report.