Life in the Triangle

In 1999, my wife Kathy and I moved to The Triangle Area of North Carolina from California. Interesting area, the Triangle. Here are some of our experiences.

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Diversity Concerns in Chicago Schools

Well boys and girls, it would seem that Wake County is one of many across the country struggling with reassignment to achieve diversity. Check out this article about Chicago's take on this concern:

School officials have turned to socioeconomic data to assign students because research suggests a close association between race and those measures. Still, parents fear that the shift in admissions policy, accompanied by a decision to give siblings and neighborhood children preference for admission to magnet schools, could erase even the modest gains in school diversity.

Parents of minority children also fear that the changes will reduce the chance that their children will gain admittance to high-performing schools.

Well, I suppose they could always move into a poorer neighborhood.


Experts in social policy say the use of social and economic factors does not compensate for the fact that the neighborhoods from which special-enrollment schools draw their students are themselves not integrated.

“Until we have a world in which housing is more integrated, it’s natural to believe we’ll see schools pretty segregated regardless of the intent or the policy actions of school administrators,” said [....] a professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University.

So is this professor suggesting that some citizens may be forced to live in poorer neighborhoods, while some others may be assigned to live in the richer neighborhood's houses??


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