Diversifying High Schools in Racially Changing Suburban Districts: Expanding Opportunity, Creating Barriers?

Abstract

Although demographic change is happening more rapidly at the elementary school level, the intersection of these demographic trends with the changing mission of high schools may offer the opportunity to reduce some of the persistent racial gaps in educational attainment. At the same time, when schools became diverse as desegregation took place, stratification within schools occurred, leading to inequality within diverse schools. Thus, this article seeks to examine whether high schools can help to expand opportunity for low-income students and students of color as suburban racial change occurs. To answer this question, this article draws on school-level interviews in six public high schools in racially changing suburban districts in some of the nation's largest metropolitan areas. High schools in this study focused on ways to provide access to diverse students through structural reforms and information dissemination, yet they also saw academic programs as a way to compete for certain students to shape their student body composition and maintain enrollment.

Notes

Because of the few number of districts in Florida metros, we have obscured the identity of this metro to maintain confidentiality promised to the district.

Other interviewees included district administrators, school board members, informal actors such as parents, and noneducational actors such as mayors or community leaders.

Of course, such classes could help students develop language skills to be able to qualify (if needed) and/or succeed in these courses in the subsequent year but not if such options conflict with advanced offerings that may only be offered one period per day.