Integrated Schooling,Life Course Outcomes,and Social Cohesion in Multiethnic Democratic Societies

Segregated Schools

Many studies examined the relationship between increasing levels of segregation and a particular outcome (intergroup relations, dropping out of school, occupational attainment, etc.). Various terms used in these studies convey the notion that a school’s population was disproportionately composed of students from one race relative to a standard usually based on a community’s demographics. Unless otherwise specified (e.g., “racially isolated White schools”), the phrases minorities, concentrated minority, racially imbalanced, racially isolated, and segregated all denote that a school’s student population has high concentrations of Black and Latino/a youth.

Diverse, Desegregated, or Integrated Schools

Another set of studies focused on the relationship between varying levels of integration and outcomes. In the context of U.S. history, school desegregation is a legal, social, and policy process designed to create schools that no longer separate students by race. An integrated school has achieved the aim of desegregation; that is, students, staff, curricula, extracurricular and cocurricular activities, and the school culture reflect the demographic balance of the students who attend it. In practice, many demographically desegregated schools are not truly integrated because of Eurocentric curricula, school climates, and racially correlated curricular tracking (Banks et al., 2005; Darling-Hammond, 2010; Lucas, 1999; Oakes, 2005; Tyson, 2011; Welner, 2001). This important caveat aside, the terms desegregated, integrated, racially balanced, and diverse are used interchangeably in the chapter because the literature that it synthesizes includes all these terms.

Tracking

The practices of elementary school ability grouping and secondary school tracking are widespread forms of curricular differentiation (Lucas & Beresford, 2010). At the secondary level, the practice creates classroom learning environments that tend to be homogeneous with respect to student race and SES. Moreover, there is ample evidence that tracking limits the opportunities to learn for all students, especially for those in the lower tracks, who more often than not are from disadvantaged minority and low-income backgrounds (Lucas, 1999; Lucas & Beresford, 2010; Mickelson & Everitt, 2008; Oakes, 2005; Schofield, 2010; Southworth & Mickelson, 2007; Welner, 2001). For this reason, Samuel R. Lucas (1999) likened the dynamics of tracking to the Matthew effect, wherein those who possess greater resources leverage them to gain even more. ³

Race

Social science research about education and race can refer to how the race of individual students affects their outcomes (student-level variable) or how the racial composition of a school is related to outcomes (the school-level variable). Typically social science researchers categorize students as Asian (or Asian American, Pacific Islander), Black (or African American), Latino/a (Hispanic), Native American (American Indian, Alaskan Native, Aleut), Other (typically reserved for international or mixed-race students), or White (European American). In some cases, studies collapse all students of color into the category of minority, which is then contrasted with Whites. Recent studies of school effects have investigated the interaction between student and school racial composition. For example, Southworth and Mickelson (2007) and Lucas and Berends (2007) report that the relationship of students’ race or ethnicity to educational outcomes and processes, like track placement, varies with the racial composition of the schools they attend.

The commonly employed racial categories blur meaningful within-race differences because of ethnicity that are relevant to educational outcomes. For instance, among Asians, Hmong and Chinese students have distinctive patterns of achievement; among Latinos/as, Colombian and Mexican youths are likely to perform differently. Immigrant generation in the United States further complicates the educational relevance of this construct. Until the third generation in the United States, immigrant students frequently perform better than their U.S.-born coethnics (Portes & Rumbaut, 2006). Much of the early school composition research focused solely on Blacks and Whites. Often there were too few Latinos/as, Asians, or American Indian students in the local school district to allow for more comprehensive analyses of racial subpopulations. Although later studies are more likely to include Asian, American Indian, and Latino/a students, there are still relatively few contemporary studies that report findings for all racial and ethnic groups found in the U.S. student population.

Socioeconomic Status

SES is used interchangeably with the terms social class and family background in the literature, even though SES and social class are based on different sets of theoretical assumptions about the nature of stratification in society (Lucas & Beresford, 2010). Like race and schooling, SES and schooling research reports student- and school-level dimensions of the relationship. SES effects reflect how the SES of individual students shapes their outcomes. An individual’s SES strongly correlates with race and is highly predictive of school outcomes. A school’s mean SES is highly predictive of its academic climate and the quality of the instruction offered there, both factors associated with educational outcomes.

Studies considered in this chapter operationalize SES in a variety of ways. The crudest measure is free and/or reduced-price lunch eligibility. This measure distinguishes only poor children whose parents sign them up for free and/or reduced-price lunches from those who are either not poor or who are poor but whose parents do not sign them up. A better measure of SES is parental education, typically denoted by mother’s educational attainment. A superior indicator is a combination of parental educational and occupational attainment. A handful of studies use well-known indices such as the Duncan socioeconomic index or the National Opinion Research Center scale to measure SES.

Short-Term Outcomes

Elementary and secondary school academic outcomes (test scores, growth scores, grades, courses taken) are the most commonly reported short-term academic outcomes. Cross-race peers, cross-race cultural acceptance, and reductions in fears and prejudice are considered nonacademic short-term outcomes (see Table 1). These indicators are operationalized in vastly different ways across the surveyed literature summarized in this review.

Long-Term Outcomes

Educational aspirations and educational attainment (variously operationalized as graduating from or dropping out of high school, college attendance, college graduation, years of education, advanced degrees) are the most common indicators of long-term academic outcomes (see Table 1). Labor force participation (occupational attainment, income), intergroup relations (adult cross-racial friendships, living in integrated neighborhoods), employment in integrated workplaces, avoidance of the criminal justice system, profession of democratic values, and levels of civic engagement are some measurable indicators of adult life course outcomes that, together, contribute to social cohesion in multiracial, democratic societies.

Racial Prejudice and Fear

The social science literature on short-term nonacademic outcomes such as intergroup relations, cross-racial friendships, and racial fears and prejudice is clear and consistent with contact theory’s premises as presented in Gordon Allport’s (1954) classic work The Nature of Prejudice. Allport wrote that intergroup contact often reduced prejudice but at times exacerbated it. His seminal opus focused on the conditions that reduced it. He found that prejudice declined when people of different races and ethnic groups worked together on common goals, shared equal status in the situation, worked cooperatively, and were sanctioned by authorities, the law, or by custom.

Since the publication of Allport’s (1954) book, an enormous body of social science literature on contact theory has confirmed his model (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006; Schofield, 1991; Schofield & Eurich-Fulcer, 2002; Tropp, Smith, & Crosby, 2007). For example, the psychologists Thomas Pettigrew and Linda Tropp (2006) conducted a meta-analysis of social science research about intergroup contact across a variety of sites. With 713 independent samples from 515 studies, they found intergroup contact typically reduces prejudice. They also found that although Allport’s (1954) four conditions were not necessary for reduction in prejudice, their presence enhanced the outcome. Tropp and Prenovost (2008) examined whether these dynamics specifically operate in schools. Overall, their findings suggest that school contact between youth from different groups corresponded with more positive intergroup attitudes and were even stronger when Allport’s optimal conditions were a structural feature of the school’s environment.

Youth Cross-Racial Friendships and Intercultural Understanding

The racial and SES organizational features of schools and classrooms affect cross-race friendships by structuring the nature of intergroup contact. Racially balanced classrooms maximize interracial friendships among Blacks and Whites, although Blacks tend to be more inclined to cross-racial friendships than Whites (Hallinan & Smith, 1985). The track level of the classroom makes a difference because of the widespread correlation between track level and student race. The typically low academic status of Blacks in desegregated schools makes them less attractive as friends to Whites who value academic achievement (Hallinan & Teixeira, 1987). Moody’s (2001) study of school integration and friendship using a nationally representative data set also found that when schools disproportionately assign minority youth to lower tracks, they add an additional status distinction between the races, lowering contact opportunity and decreasing cross-race friendships. However, Quillian and Campbell’s (2003) examination of cross-race friendships found that tracking had no significant effect net of other factors such as students’ race and SES. They report that the share of friends from a race other than the student’s depended on the number of students in the school who were from another race. Being members of a small minority increased the odds of own-race friend selection (see also Feld & Carter, 1998, for similar findings).

Cross-race friendships are important for academic outcomes, especially for minority students. Liu and Carbonaro (2008) found that the relationship between secondary school racial composition and student achievement outcomes was mediated through the cross-racial and academic mix of students’ best friends. Achievement levels of students’ best friends have a significantly positive effect on academic outcomes of all races and ethnicities, but African American and Latino youth benefitted the most from a heterogeneous mix.

Michal Kurlaender and John Yun (2001, 2005, 2007) conducted a series of studies in major U.S. cities using a survey instrument, the Diversity Assessment Questionnaire, that measured high school respondents’ values and attitudes toward democracy, civic engagement, and awareness of and respect for cultural differences. They report that attending a diverse high school promotes greater comfort with diverse peers and their perspectives, although there were significant racial and ethnic differences in students’ comfort levels.

Prudence Carter’s (2005, 2011) qualitative studies of integrated and segregated schools in the United States and South Africa show that integrated education fosters the development of adolescents who become culturally flexible and thus are able to successfully navigate between racial and ethnic contexts. Developing what Carter terms multicultural navigation skills is essential for the kinds of occupations required in a global economy and for citizenship in multiethnic societies. Findings consistent with Carter’s observations appear in several studies of desegregated schools in South Africa (Machaisa, 2008; Nkomo, Chisholm, & McKinney, 2004; Nkomo & Vandeyar, 2008; Nkomo, Vandeyar, et al., 2009; Nkomo, Weber, & Amsterdam, 2009; Phatlane, 2009; Vandeyar & Jansen, 2008; Weber, Nkomo, & Amsterdam, 2009).

Graduating High School

Graduating from high school is an important stepping-stone to higher education and occupational attainment. The vast literature on this complex issue includes a small body of research that examines graduation and dropout rates specifically in relationship to school composition. It suggests that school composition is an essential component of the opportunity structure that fosters graduation and inhibits dropping out of school. Findings indicating that the racial composition of schools is a significant predictor of high school graduation are important because the United States has striking dropout rates that correlate highly with students’ race, class, gender, and region of the country (Swanson, 2005). The breathtakingly high dropout rate among Black males in 2007–2008 was 53%; that is, most Black male students failed to graduate with their cohort (Schott Foundation for Public Education, 2010). Latinos/as and Native Americans and youth from lower SES backgrounds also experience high dropout rates.

Schofield’s (2001) review of early social science literature revealed that attending desegregated elementary and secondary schools decreased the likelihood that minorities will drop out of school. Susan Mayer (1991) examined the impact of school racial and SES desegregation on students’ chances of dropping out using data from the 1980 High School and Beyond survey and its 1982 follow-up study. She reported that Whites who attend a predominantly Black or Hispanic high school were more likely to drop out compared with those who attend integrated or predominantly White schools. Attending a high-poverty school increased likelihood of dropping out for all students, especially for low-SES students. Mayer argues that for Black and Hispanic students, the effects of attending predominantly Black schools on their dropout rates are largely accounted for by the low mean SES of the racially segregated schools.

Recent research on the topic clarifies the relationship between school composition and dropping out for various subpopulations. For example, using statewide administrative population data from Virginia, Gregory, Cornell, and Fan (2011) demonstrated that schools with higher Black enrollments tended to suspend more White and Black students and to have greater racial gaps in suspension rates. Jonathan Guryan’s (2004) study of desegregation and school dropout rates used national census data for 1970 and 1980. During these years, the dropout rate remained constant in districts that did not initiate desegregation efforts. But he found that desegregation plans of the 1970s led to significant declines in Black high school dropout rates during the decade. The effects were especially strong in districts that practiced mandatory desegregation and also those districts that reduced within-school segregation from tracking. He did not find similar declines in the White dropout rates.

In one of the few studies that examined school composition effects on the dropout rate among immigrant youth, Alexander Portes and Lingxin Hao (2004) found that the influence of high SES background on academic achievement was reinforced in high-status schools, compounding the advantages of children from well-to-do immigrant families. Using data from the 1992–1993 Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (a comprehensive data source on second-generation immigrants), they also found that the positive ethnic effect for Asians and negative for Mexicans were attenuated in the presence of peers from the same ethnic group. Additionally, although dropout rates for second-generation students typically were reduced by attending a high-SES school, for Mexican-origin students it raised the likelihood.

Argun Saatcioglu’s (2010) three-decade longitudinal case study of dropping out of high school in Cleveland, Ohio, offers unique insights into the dynamics of school composition effects across multiple cohorts of students who experienced segregation, desegregation, and resegregation in a school system whose larger community was grappling with the economic, political, and social consequences of deindustrialization. Under segregation, both minorities and White dropout rates suffered. But desegregation served as a positive countervailing force to the adverse social influences that fostered dropping out of high school among Black, White, and Latino youth. He cautions, however, that even though school desegregation had a favorable effect on student graduation rates, it could not compensate completely for the adverse influence of other social forces in students’ urban environment.

Overall, the relatively small empirical record suggests a negative relationship between attending high-poverty and racially segregated schools and the likelihood of graduating from high school. The effects are strongest for low-income students of color. But with the possible exception of some immigrant youth, the high school graduation rates of students from all racial and SES backgrounds benefit from attending racially diverse schools.

High School to College Graduation

Graduating from high school is the first step in the process leading to educational and occupational attainment. Attending college is the next step. A multiplicity of student, family, economic, and school organizational and quality indicators contribute to whether someone enrolls in postsecondary education (T. Baker & Velez, 1996). Although early studies did not show positive effects of secondary school integration on college attendance (Braddock, 1980; Braddock & McPartland, 1982; Crain & Mahard, 1978; Dawkins & Braddock, 1994; Eckland, 1979), recent research more consistently shows that students who learned in racially and socioeconomically integrated settings are more likely to attend college. This is especially true for underserved minority youth (Gándara, 1995; Jencks & Mayer, 1990; Teranishi, Allen, & Solorzano, 2004; Teranishi & Parker, 2010; Trent, 1997).

Empirical studies in California, one of the most ethnically and racially diverse states, clearly show that net of other factors, attending racially segregated high school diminishes a student’s chances of admission to the University of California (Martin, Karabel, & Jaquez, 2005; Teranishi et al., 2004; Teranishi & Parker, 2010). There are significant notable variations by student race in how particular racial and ethnic mix of a diverse school influences the likelihood of attending college (Martin et al., 2005; Tevis, 2007). Similarly, a high school’s mean SES also influences the likelihood its graduates will enroll in college. Socioeconomically diverse high schools appear to reduce the intergenerational transmission of disadvantages (McDonough, 1997). Using a nationally representative data set, Choi, Raley, Muller, and Riegle-Crumb (2008) found that the likelihood of attending college is directly related to the proportion of classmates with highly educated parents.

The mechanisms by which segregated secondary schools diminish the likelihood of college attendance and graduation for the students who attend them are fairly transparent. Rigorous curricula, academically oriented peers, teacher quality, and access to Advanced Placement courses are essential for college preparation; yet the likelihood of their presence in a high school curriculum varies with the school’s racial and socioeconomic profile (Card & Rothstein, 2005; Darling-Hammond, 2010; Ehrmann & Massey, 2008; Jackson, 2009 Massey & Fischer, 2006; Mickelson, 2006; Pachon & Federman, 2004; Yun & Moreno, 2006).

At the same time, a smaller body of research indicates that racially homogeneous learning environments may have a positive effect on minority students’ aspirations or sense of self-efficacy (Frost, 2007; Oates, 2004), and self-esteem (Massey, 2006). Ryan Wells (2010) reported that immigrant children’s expectations were positively associated with attending schools with large numbers of their coethnics.

College Performance

Terenzini, Cabrera, Colbeck, Bjorklund, and Parenti (2001) have distinguished three approaches in the literature to studying diversity in higher education. The first is simply a numerical count; the second assumes informal in situ encounters with diversity as a normal course of events; the third assesses structured programs designed to generate diverse experiences. Overall, research on higher education diversity effects suggests that college learning, cognitive development, and academic performance are positively associated with attending an integrated college. Stronger effects are associated with informal interactional or structured formal classroom contexts (Bowman, 2010; Gurin, Nagda, & Lopez, 2004; Myerson, Frank, Rains, & Schnitzler, 1998; Terenzini et al., 2001).

The likely pathways by which integrated experiences foster critical thinking and problem solving involve the novelty of diverse classmates. They tend to trigger cognitive disequilibrium because of the contradiction between preconceived notions about them and their realities. The diversity-induced break with automaticity in thinking is resolved through effortful, conscious, and mindful higher order thinking (Bargh, 2007; Bowman, 2010; Gurin et al., 2004). For example, students with diverse college classmates experience greater levels of integrative complexity in their thinking (Antonio, Chang, Hakuta, Kenny, & Milem, 2004; see also, more generally, Page, 2007).

Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson’s (1995) research on stereotype threat provides a nuanced explanation for the underperformance of some minority students when they are in racially isolated White classrooms. The mechanisms of stereotype threat do not depend on school or classroom racial composition factors. But if a student is one of only a few persons of color in a classroom, the individual is more likely to experience spotlight anxiety, which triggers stereotype threats. Students experience stereotype threat when they fear doing something that may inadvertently confirm negative stereotypes in domains with high emotional salience for them, such as the alleged intellectual inferiority of African Americans (Steele, 2003).

Through a series of experiments Steele, Aronson, and their colleagues demonstrated that when students care about the activity’s domain (e.g., academic achievement), the pressure imposed by the relevance of the negative stereotype leads to lower performance. The performance of many achievement-oriented African Americans became impaired when primed on academic matters. The salience of the academic domain triggered disidentification. This mechanism protects vulnerable people from the pain of the stereotype threat by allowing them to cease caring about the domain’s activities, which, in turn, leads to diminished academic performance.

Occupational Attainment

Ever since Robert Crain’s (1970) early study of desegregation and occupational attainment demonstrated that Black males (but not Black females) who attended desegregated schools were more likely to be employed in nontraditional occupations than the males who attended segregated schools, social science has consistently reported that attending diverse schools is positively correlated with the occupational attainment of African Americans and other students of color. First, integrated education enhances the achievement and attainment necessary for employment; second, desegregation broadens the occupational aspirations of disadvantaged minorities; third, it facilitates access to employment through enhancing social networks and other resources associated with employment (Dawkins, 1983; Granovetter, 1979; Hoelter, 1982; McPartland & Braddock, 1981; Trent, 1997); and fourth, it fosters intercultural navigation skills (Brief for 65 Leading American Businesses as Amici Curiae Supporting Respondents, 2003; Carter, 2005).

Wages and Income

The social science evidence on the effects of integrated schooling on wages and income presents a mixed picture. Adam Gamoran and his colleagues assessed the labor market consequences of high school racial composition with national longitudinal surveys of the high school classes of 1982 and followed up in 1992 and in 2000 (Gamoran, Collares, & Barfels, 2005). Multilevel models of students nested within schools indicated that school racial composition was unrelated to annual earnings. Steven Rivkin (2000) did not find evidence that desegregation programs raised lifetime earnings for Blacks. He concluded that raising school quality is likely to be more efficient than reallocation of students among schools as a means to improve academic and labor market outcomes for Blacks. ⁶

Yet other researchers conclude that desegregated schooling correlates with increased wages and income for minority workers. Boozer, Krueger, and Wolkon (1992) used several nationally representative data sets to examine racial disparities in school quality since 1950 and their implications for labor market outcomes such as wages. They found that Blacks who attend schools with higher proportions of Black students were likely to earn lower wages as adult workers. They argue that this relationship rests on the connections between school quality, less integrated workplaces, and lower likelihood of using a computer at work irrespective of educational levels. Lower computer use among Black workers may be responsible for as much as one third of the increase in the Black–White wage gap between 1976 and 1990. Jeff Grogger’s (1996) study of school characteristics’ effects on wages used longitudinal data from 1972 through 1980. Results from his study were consistent with Boozer et al.’s (1992) findings that school segregation has significant negative effects on wages. Ashenfelter, Collins, and Yoon (2006) used the National Survey of Black Americans to compare the annual income of Southern-born Blacks who finished their secondary schooling before desegregation with those who attended desegregated schools. The authors concluded that desegregated schooling had a substantive and significant positive effect on Blacks’ income. David Card, Alan Krueger, and their colleagues (1994, 1996) also found school segregation had an indirect negative association with income.

Workplace Diversity

In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that under certain circumstances, race-based affirmative action programs in higher education were permissible because they advanced compelling state interests, one of which is preparing youth for diverse workplaces. The Court’s opinion, written by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, drew heavily on the amicus brief of the military (Consolidated Brief of Lt. Gen. Julius W. Becton, 2003) and the one filed on behalf of leading U.S. firms (Brief for 65 Leading American Businesses as Amici Curiae Supporting Respondents, 2003). Both briefs argued for the necessity of having a highly diverse and well-educated workforce because in today’s global marketplace the increasing diversity in the U.S. population demands the cross-cultural experience and understanding gained from diverse education (Grutter v. Bollinger, 2003).

Studies about effects of integrated high schools are consistent with research about integrated higher education and preparation for diverse workplaces. Jomills Braddock and James McPartland (1989) used nationally representative data from the late 1970s to examine the long-term influences of high school racial composition on students’ later workplace racial composition. They found that high school composition was a significant and powerful predictor of coworker racial mix. Elizabeth Stearns (2010) used more recent nationally representative data to examine the same questions. Her study reported that exposure to diverse racial groups in high school—specifically, exposure to Asian Americans, African Americans, and Latinos for White students and exposure to Latinos and Whites for African American students—reduced racial isolation in the post–high school workplace. She found that whereas high school racial composition did not have a significant influence on the workplace racial isolation of Asian American and Latinos, the racial isolation in their neighborhoods did. Stearns concluded that if one considers lower levels of racial isolation in the workplace as indicators of social cohesion, attendance at diverse high schools likely will contribute to greater levels of it.

Gamoran et al. (2005) found that Whites who attended high schools with higher proportions of White students tend to have higher proportions of White coworkers, and Blacks who attended high schools with higher proportions of White coworkers have fewer Black coworkers. These findings were sustained in propensity score models designed to mitigate the effects of selection bias. Although the effects were substantively modest, they were nonetheless statistically significant.

Cross-Racial Friendships and Intergroup Relations

Social science research suggests adults who attended integrated K–12 schools are more likely to have interracial adult relationships. Many of the studies synthesized by Pettigrew and Tropp (2006) showing interracial contact lowered levels of stereotypes and prejudice involved adult samples. The next section focuses on the studies that discuss the relationships between childhood experiences with integrated schooling and adult cross-racial friendships.

Christopher Ellison and Daniel Powers (1994) found that childhood and adult interracial contact enhances the likelihood that Blacks will report having White friends. Similarly, Peter Wood and Nancy Sonleitner (1996) studied White adults’ racial attitudes in Oklahoma City. They found that childhood interracial contact had a significant negative association with adult levels of prejudice and stereotypes. Stearns, Buchmann, and Bonneau (2009) examined whether precollege experiences with cross-racial friendships influenced the proportion of college cross-race friendships. They found that interracial friendships prior to college had the largest impact on the interracial friendships during the first year of college. According to this study, Whites formed more interracial friendships than other groups. Structural features of the college environment, such as roommates, Greek organizations, or ethnic organizations, can hinder or foster interracial friendship formation.

Studies of college students using national-level data indicate that cross-racial friendships improve students’ knowledge of and ability to get along with different groups and to accept differences among people (Chang, Denson, Saenz, & Misa, 2006). However, earlier research found that cross-racial friendships did not necessarily trigger changes in all attitudes. Jackman and Crane (1986) reported that having Black friends and acquaintances had almost no effect on Whites’ views generally opposing increased government attempts to promote racial equality.

Diverse Neighbors

Given current trends toward neighborhood-based school assignment policies, children whose parents choose to live in racially integrated neighborhoods are more likely than others to attend integrated schools. Both childhood experiences with integrated neighborhoods and attendance in diverse schools had a positive relationship on the likelihood an adult will choose to live in an integrated neighborhood. Kurlaender and Yun (2001, 2005, 2007) found that students from all racial backgrounds who attended diverse secondary schools were more likely to prefer to live and work in diverse settings as adults, although this relationship was stronger among Blacks than Whites (Kurlaender & Yun, 2001). Their findings about intentions are consistent with other research that reports adolescents who attended integrated schools and colleges were more likely to actually live and work in integrated settings as adults (Braddock & Gonzales, 2010; Stearns, 2010; Wells et al., 2009).

Jomills Braddock and Amaryllis Gonzalez (2010) examined school segregation’s intergenerational consequences for adults’ choices of same or different race neighbors. They report that students who attended more racially isolated elementary, middle, and high schools were more likely as adults to prefer same-race neighbors. Their analysis of a large nationally representative data set revealed that even though neighborhood racial isolation during childhood remains strongly associated with young adults’ preference for same-race neighbors, racial isolation in schools plays a more significant role in diminishing social cohesion among young adults from all racial and ethnic groups. The findings support perpetuation theory, which suggests that school segregation fosters segregation across the life course and across institutional contexts.

Eric Oliver’s (2010) research reveals the complexity of the relationship between neighborhood ethnic diversity and indicators of social cohesion such as civic engagement. Oliver notes that the ameliorative effects of integration are assumed to arise from people becoming civically and socially engaged with their neighbors, but this does not always happen. Oliver argues that although working and living close to members of other races increases tolerance among Whites, Blacks, Latinos, and Asians, doing so paradoxically appears to dampen civic involvement.

Residential integration, although fostering some types of associational membership, may not enhance a sense of community or linkages to place. In fact, it may produce the opposite. Oliver (2010) found that neighborhood racial homogeneity was more likely to promote a feeling of community. For this reason, neighborhood integration can diminish social involvement among Blacks. However, Latinos and Asians living in White neighborhoods are more civically active. In White suburbs, both minorities and Whites appear more alienated than those in homogeneous communities. This dynamic may be one reason minorities seek community in minority neighborhoods (Oliver, 2010). These findings underscore the importance of Putnam’s (2000) theoretical distinction between bridging and bonding social capital for understanding the complexities of social cohesion in multiethnic societies.

Understanding the Perspective of Others

Several qualitative studies examine the long-term effects of attending diverse schools on adults’ understanding of race in their lives, the lives of others, and in larger society. Amy Stuart Wells and her colleagues (Holmes, Wells, & Revilla, 2005; A. S. Wells, Holmes, Revilla, & Atando, 2009) conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews with the 1980 graduates of six integrated U.S. high schools. Respondents reported that their experiences with integration fostered a deeper understanding of other groups and greater comfort in interracial settings. Although there were notable racial and ethnic variations in what students learned, all graduates reported they were better prepared for a racially plural society because they attended integrated schools.

Similarly, Amy Hawn Nelson’s (2010) case study of 1997 graduates from a single school district yielded results similar to Holmes et al. (2005) and A. S. Wells et al. (2009), particularly for graduates of the most racially diverse high schools. Carter (2011) found that high school students in the United States and South Africa who attended integrated schools were the most likely to develop multicultural navigation skills that entail understanding the perspective of others and taking these perspectives into consideration when interacting with them.

Sylvia Hurtado and her colleagues (Hurtado, 2005, 2006; Hurtado, Engberg, Ponjuan, & Landreman, 2002) report that students’ precollege experiences with integrated schooling predispose them to attitudes and perspectives that sustain social cohesion in multiethnic societies. They found that students who enter college with substantial experience interacting with diverse peers were more likely to see the world from someone else’s perspective and to value the importance of diversity.

Espousing Values and Attitudes Consistent With Democratic Society

Attending diverse schools can cultivate values and attitudes consistent with a democratic society. Kurlaender and Yun’s (2001, 2005, 2007) series of studies in major U.S. cities using their Diversity Assessment Questionnaire revealed that diverse school composition promotes democratic values and positive attitudes toward civic engagement among students from all racial and ethnic backgrounds. The researchers note variations in outcomes among students from different ethnic and racial backgrounds (Kurlaender & Yun, 2007).

Sylvia Hurtado and her colleagues also examined changes in attitudes toward democracy among students in 10 public universities. They reported that interactions with diverse college peers changed attitudinal, cognitive, and democratic values; cultural awareness; and concern for the public good (Hurtado, 2005; Hurtado et al., 2002). For example, they found that students who enter college having had substantial prior interactions with diverse peers are more likely to value the importance of engaging in social action to create change in society.

Patricia Gurin’s quasi-experimental research with students from the University of Michigan investigated the benefits of diversity in education for democratic attitudes, values, and behaviors (Gurin, Dey, Hurtado, & Gurin, 2002; Gurin et al., 2004). Findings from Gurin’s series of studies indicate that students involved in structured diversity experiences were more likely to express democratic sentiments, to take the perspective of others, and to see commonality in values across cultures. Moreover, structured diversity experiences (as opposed to informal ones) promoted more active, complex thinking about controversial issues in ways that prepare students for debating issues and resolving conflicts through negotiation.

Negotiating Conflicts

Schools with multiethnic student bodies can be sites of cross-racial tensions and conflict (Eitle & Eitle, 2003). Consistent with contact theory, school integration among middle school students increases perceptions of both friendliness and conflict among students of different race and ethnic groups (Goldsmith, 2004). Curricular tracking and segregated extracurricular activities can worsen race relations. Tracking separates and labels youths in ways that invariably correlate with their race, ethnicity, and social class backgrounds. But schools that structure intergroup contact (group work, elimination of tracking, multicultural curriculum) are successful in creating conditions for reducing tensions and fostering cross-race friendships (Banks et al., 2005; Cohen, 1994; Lotan, 2004).

Students who enter college with substantial interactions with diverse peers are more likely to believe that diversity enhances conflict negotiation, although most students are unprepared to negotiate conflict when they enter college (Chang et al., 2006; Hurtado et al., 2002). Hurtado (2005) recommends that campuses intentionally structure opportunities for students to learn about diverse social groups and conflict resolution inside and outside the classroom because if cross-ethnic/racial interactions are left to chance, most students are likely to revert to familiar and solidified positions when encountering conflict.

Voting

Political socialization is an almost universal goal of formal education. Voting is considered a common behavioral indicator of civic engagement in democratic societies (Macedo, 2005). Americans infamously exhibit low voter turnout. This fact is a source of great consternation among political leaders because of its dire implications for a vibrant democratic polity. ⁷ Even though political philosophers and policymakers have linked civic engagement to the political socialization of schools, political scientists consider the link between formal education and civic participation a black box (Campbell, 2006).

A number of possibilities may explain the connection: Education may lead to an increase in political knowledge, tolerance, and acceptance (Nie, Junn, & Stehlik, 1996) because it breaks down barriers to engagement (Delli Carpini & Keeter, 1996); schooling may inculcate norms encouraging civic involvement (Campbell, 2006); schooling may teach civic skills (Verba, Schlozman, & Brady, 1995); or education may be a proxy for selection effects—people with the propensity for civic participation also become more educated.

Notably, even though U.S. schools are mandated to prepare and motivate students to participate in elections, young adults are less likely to vote than older citizens. A full discussion of the determinants of voting behavior is beyond the scope of this chapter. Given the widespread mandate that schools prepare youth to exercise their franchise as well as philosophers’ arguments that diverse education is essential for democratic citizenship, it is appropriate to examine if characteristics of the schools and classrooms in which students learn, such as their racial and SES composition, influence the propensity to vote.

The limited body of literature from the United States on this topic does not show a relationship between integrated education and voting. David Campbell (2005, 2006, 2009) examined this question using a small but nationally representative panel data set of 1965 White high school graduates. He assessed whether three dimensions of school diversity—racial composition, religion, and partisanship—affected the civic participation attitudes and behaviors of White high school graduates at three points in time. He found that the racial composition of the high school was not related to propensity to vote. The higher the political homogeneity of the school, the greater the propensity to vote. In another study, he examined classroom racial diversity’s effects on political discussions (Campbell, 2007). His results show that racial diversity corresponded to fewer political discussions, and fewer political discussions, in turn, correlated with lower likelihood of adolescents’ intentions of becoming informed voters. Campbell’s research essentially shows that greater civic participation occurs where people obtain formal political socialization in homogeneous schools and classrooms. ⁸

Other research on school composition and civic engagement is consistent with Campbell’s findings. Kahne, Chi, and Middaugh (2006) examined the role of civics education on norms of civic participation, social trust, and knowledge of social networks among students who attended 52 Chicago high schools. Their quasi experiment revealed that although civics education could improve commitment to participate, school characteristics of SES and racial composition were no longer significant predictors of the outcome once other school, family, and neighborhood characteristic were controlled (Kahne et al., 2006; Kahne & Sporte, 2008; Kahne & Westheimer, 2004).

Jane Junn (2004) addresses the inconsistency between the promise and reality of integrated schooling and findings about its influence on civic participation. She observes that for centuries public schools have been expected to socialize students into the American creed and its democratic political values, making patriotic citizens of everyone through civic education courses. Civic education is expected to stem the tide of youthful disengagement and to renew political interest and social involvement among America’s youth through inculcating political knowledge, democratic values, and motivating participation in voting (Dillon, 2011).

The distinction between democracy as a system of government (process) and democracy as a just society (content) is central to the contradiction in the creed described by Junn (2004). On one hand, schools portray government as a neutral arbiter in an ostensibly fair democratic political system where citizens enjoy equality of agency (democracy as process). On the other hand, students learn about (or their families experienced) the realities of racial and ethnic injustices such as literacy tests for Blacks and imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II or about the 2000 partisan activists in Florida who successfully challenged minority voters’ right to their franchise. She argues that civic education reveals this contradiction to students. From the perspective of where young people sit, some discrimination is normative in everyday political and economic life, and the concepts of freedom, fairness, equality, justice, and political democracy are far from unambiguous (Junn, 2004). And because the promises of democratic society (democracy as content) are disproportionately more distant for immigrants, minorities, and the poor, the youth from disadvantaged communities are understandably more suspicious of and less likely to engage in civic behaviors such as voting and civic associations (Hochschild & Scovronick, 2003; Junn, 2004; Oliver, 2010).

James Ladwig (2010) and Linda McNeil (1986) observe that many important nonacademic outcomes fall outside the logic of conventional measurement, including the consequences of civics education for a democracy. The outcomes of civics education include substantive knowledge, skills, and dispositions—with dispositions especially difficult to capture with conventional approaches to measurement. Nonetheless, the growing racial and ethnic diversity of the student population challenges educators to develop civic education curricula that acknowledge inequalities in the political and economic structure of the society, that do not teach about democracy in a one-size-fits-all rubric or ignore complex ethnic and racial realities. Instead, they recommend a civics curriculum that balances the divergent experiences of students while presenting the shared ground of democratic norms, voting, participation, commitment to political equality in the face of structural constraints to it (Gutman 1999; Junn, 2004).

The research studies summarized above showing no relationship between integrated schooling, civics education, and voting were conducted before Barack Obama ran for president. Candidate Obama captured the energy and votes of large numbers of America’s young and minority voters, two constituencies that are known for being less likely to vote. However, the great recession of 2009 and its economic, social, and political sequelae cast into sharp relief the contradictions between the promises of democracy as governance and the contours of the unjust and stratified society permitted by this process. The implications of these sequelae for voting and civic engagement in 2012 among youths, the economically marginalized workers, and people of color remain to be seen as of this writing.

Change the Public Narrative About Diversity and Public Education

Although it was incompletely implemented, outcomes of desegregation efforts were, on balance, positive. ⁹ The research record clearly demonstrates the benefits of racially and socioeconomically diverse schools. Trends in racial achievement gaps narrowed steadily during the years when the nation’s schools were desegregating. The narrowing trends have decreased markedly since desegregation faltered in the late 1980s.

One key way to build public support for diverse schools is to change the dominant narrative about integrated public education. Educators and policymakers are often hamstrung by a widespread public misperception that all public schools are failing. Public conversations about education frequently overlook the fact that the vast majority of schools in most school districts are successful and many are exemplary. The public narrative needs to distinguish between the districts and schools that are in crisis and the thousands upon thousands of successful public schools.

Leadership is necessary to convey the message that racially and socioeconomically diverse schools can become desirable middle-class schools suitable for all children and that diversity is a cost-effective and fiscally prudent reform. Local school leaders can learn from the corporate world and the military where diversity is considered essential for success and efficiency. Moreover, school leaders can illustrate their claims by pointing to the Department of Defense schools that serve the children of members of the armed services. Department of Defense schools are integrated by race and SES, high performing, and do not produce the race and SES gaps found in public or private civilian schools (Smrekar & Owens, 2003).

Coordinate Housing Policies With Education Policy to Foster Greater Residential and Educational Diversity

Given the demographic homogeneity of many of our communities and the neighborhood school basis of most pupil assignment plans, housing policy is de facto education policy. Attempting to create education policy for diversity without developing housing policies for diversity is akin to cleaning the air on one side of a screen door. ¹⁰

Incentivize the Creation of Diverse Schools

Federal and state programs can prioritize reforms that foster academic, racial, and socioeconomic diversity. Diversity goals should be part of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and any future Race to the Top initiatives—perhaps even a “Race to Diversity” initiative could be instituted.

Federal, state, and local policies can discourage programs or policies that foster resegregation by SES, race, or ability. They can require diversity impact statements for all school reforms that involve federal programs. Private schools should not be permitted to convert to charters if they are not diverse. Charters, magnets, educational management organizations, and voucher programs should not be permitted to exclude special needs children or English language learners.

Provide Resources and Technical Assistance to Local Educational Agencies That Seek to Create and Implement Diverse Schools

School districts that desire to create diverse schools frequently do not have resources to do so. Resource deficits range from insufficient transportation funds to inadequate technical expertise. Allow flexibility and provide support for transportation costs linked to diversity initiatives. Provide technical assistance to districts as they develop plans for integrated education.

Accept the Supreme Court’s Invitation in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007)

Justice Kennedy’s controlling opinion in the Seattle and Louisville voluntary desegregation decision provides guidance for local school systems that wish to pursue diversity. Although the Court rejected the specific voluntary desegregation plans of Louisville and Seattle because they used individual students’ race for placements, the court affirmed the nation’s compelling interest in avoiding racially isolated schools and promoting diverse ones. Kennedy’s opinion gave the Court’s imprimatur to a number of explicit reforms and policies that can create diverse schools, including siting schools between neighborhoods that are residentially segregated, and recruiting teachers and students.

Refine and Expand an Effective Civics Education Curricula and Pedagogy to Promote Social Justice Through Civic Engagement

Rogers, Kahne, and Middaugh (2008) note that John Dewey wanted students to attend to broader relationships between government and the economy. By attending to social and economic justice issues, Dewey extended civics education beyond the formal political institutions typically taught in secondary schools. He framed class inequality and poverty in relationship to fundamental concerns with equality and political participation, arguing explicitly that economic conditions are not natural or inevitable but the result of particular policy choices made by private and state actors. Rogers et al. (2008) note that Dewey’s vision highlights the importance of preparing students to be efficacious citizens with the knowledge, skills, and commitments needed to work for fundamental changes in the political economy. Doing so entails providing youths with tools to understand social problems, the vision for a possible democratic future, and the ability and commitment to take action for change.