Feb 4, 2020, 4:34 AM
(From The 74 Million) Across the country, parents of all backgrounds tend to agree that racial and economic school integration is important, according to a recent Harvard report. But do parents really want their children in integrated schools? The survey reveals that parents, when asked to weigh school choice for their children, typically prioritize school quality and safety over school integration. The report suggests that while parents value integration in-principle, "a mixture of concerns about school quality and various unacknowledged racial and class biases appear to deter parents." For example, many white, advantaged parents appear to determine school quality by how many other white, advantaged parents enroll their child in the school, without doing the legwork to determine if what schools are actually high-quality or a good fit for their children.
What will motivate more parents to send their children to racially and economically integrated schools? A focus on strong academics, carefully crafted school assignment policies and thoughtful interdistrict busing partnerships may prove fruitful in providing parents with more and better integrated school options, according to the researchers.
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