The Integration Report at the Civil Rights Project

By far one of the best things going in educational law is the Civil Rights Project, now based at UCLA. They have a new feature I want to pass along called The Integration Report. It is sort of a blog and sort of a newsletter and sort of a journal article all in one nice little, bi-weekly package. In this episode, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley explores the feasibility of using SES as a proxy for race in affirmative action integration policies. She concludes (and uses scholarly research to make her case - very nice) that SES is not a good proxy for race and while it may have benefits it does not directly serve the purpose of racial integration.

In conclusion, while SES integration may produce academic and social
gains distinct from the documented benefits of racial diversity,
research suggests that income-based student assignment does not
necessarily create or maintain racially integrated schools. In our
ongoing examination of the various plans being developed around the
country, we have highlighted many districts currently in the process of
adopting some measure of SES as part of their revised plans. Using SES
as a basis for student assignment without also considering some measure
of race or ethnicity will not guarantee continued racial integration.

The full (page long or so) article is well worth the read and kudos to the folks at CRP for putting this out - I am looking forward to the next issue. Also, they have an extensive list of news links related to desegregation and diversity issues in the post that may also be worth your time. You can read the Integration Report at their blog site, or RSS it (see my earlier post on the Edjurist Aggregator) or you can subscribe to CRP's mailing list. I subscribe and it is not too intrusive, only an e-mail or two a month.