Federal oversight, local control, and the specter of "resegregation" in Southern schools
Abstract
Analyzing data for the 100 largest districts in the South and Border states, we ask
whether there is evidence of "resegregation" of school districts and whether levels
of segregation can be linked to judicial decisions. We distinguish segregation measures
based on racial isolation from those based on racial imbalance. Only one measure of
racial isolation suggests that districts in these regions experienced resegregation
between 1994 and 2004, and changes in this measure appear to be driven largely by
the rising nonwhite percentage in the student population rather than by district policies.
Although we find no time trend in racial imbalance over this period, we find that
variations in racial imbalance across districts are nonetheless associated with judicial
declarations of unitary status, suggesting that segregation in schools might have
declined had it not been for the actions of federal courts. © 2006 Oxford University
Press.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/6930Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1093/aler/ahl002Publication Info
Clotfelter, C; Ladd, H; & Vigdor., J (2006). Federal oversight, local control, and the specter of "resegregation" in Southern schools.
American Law and Economics Review, 8(2). pp. 347-389. 10.1093/aler/ahl002. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/6930.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Charles T. Clotfelter
Z. Smith Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Public Policy Studies
Charles Clotfelter is Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy and Professor of
Economics and Law at Duke University, where he has taught since 1979. He is also
a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. His major research
interests are in the economics of education, the nonprofit sector, and public finance.
He is the author of Unequal Colleges in the Age of Disparity (Harvard University Press,
2017), Big-Time Sports
Helen F. Ladd
Susan B. King Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Public Policy
Helen F. Ladd is the Susan B. King Professor Emerita of Public Policy and Economics
at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. Her education research focuses
on school finance and accountability, teacher labor markets, school choice, and early
childhood programs. With colleagues at Duke University and UNC, she has used rich
longitudinal administrative data from North Caroline to study school segregation,
teacher labor markets, teacher quality, charter school
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