Segregation in Charter and Magnet Schools

In this blog entry, my last, I will analyze an article published by Frankenberg and Lee of Harvard University in late 2003 titled “Charter Schools and Race: A Lost Opportunity for Integrated Education”. It was published in the Education Policy Analysis Archives peer-reviewed journal.

The study analyzed “racial composition and segregation of charter schools by state,” and it considered “the differences in segregation between non-charter public schools […] and charter schools, as well as segregation within the charter school sector.”

According to the article, school choice options typically arose as part of a desegregation policy or movement. For example, magnet schools were established to be specialized so that they would attract people from all races who were particularly interested in the specialization of the school. The idea of school choice as built into No Child Left Behind is “that the achievement of poor and minority students will improve if they have access to schools that have demonstrated higher levels of student performance. [NCLB] also assumes that parents will be able to make decisions about what education is best for their children, which will force schools to compete—and ultimately improve—to keep and/or attract students.”

Opponents to school choice, according to Frankenberg and Lee, “argue that competition among schools will only improve student achievement if all schools are able to compete and students are equally free to choose. Otherwise, those students who are left behind by those who choose or are chosen in more competitive environments will have even less resources with which to compete. Those opposed also suggest that choice systems can compromise the public good by educating students in isolation from others for their private good, often further stratifying students along racial and socioeconomic lines.”

Frankenberg and Lee compared the racial composition of charter schools to non-charter public schools. They looked at enrollment, among other factors. The results of the study are based on the larger picture versus local situational circumstances. Frankenberg and Lee found “that charter schools in most of these states enroll disproportionately high percentages of minority students, particularly African American students.” The states mentioned include those with charter school enrollment greater than 5000. They found that over half of the charter schools with this level of enrollment were found in cities. White students were typically segregated by predominantly white charter schools. They concluded that there is little effort by the charter schools to create a balance of races within the charter school setting.

What are the implications of this type of segregation for the students after graduation? This article was published in 2003; is there a greater effort to desegregate charter schools today?