NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Vanderbilt Peabody College faculty are poised to influence what could be the most significant school integration Supreme Court cases since Brown v. Board of Education.
Research by Vanderbilt Peabody College faculty Ellen Goldring, Claire Smrekar, Mark Berends, James Guthrie, Pearl Sims and former graduate student Debra Owens is included in amicus briefs recently submitted to the Supreme Court in cases about school choice and the use of race as a deciding factor in Seattle, Wash. and Louisville, Ky. The briefs mark only the fifth time in its history that the court has considered social science research during its deliberations, beginning with Brown in 1954.
“As school choice is increasingly part of the landscape of student assignment policies, the outcome of these cases will help determine the extent to which the nation‘s schools are segregated or integrated,” Goldring, professor of education policy and leadership, said. “Our research suggests that geographic proximity to school does not translate into supportive community contexts for children. Black children are much more likely to be assigned to schools in high-risk neighborhoods. School choice provides an avenue to decouple neighborhood segregation and school segregation.”
The first case, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, is scheduled to go before the court Dec. 4. It began when a student was denied admission into the public school of their choice based on their race. While the school system gave students an option to request a specific public school, it used a “racial tiebreaker” in final placement decisions. The school district explains that race was considered to diversify schools and to cut down on unintentional segregation. The plaintiff, Seattle-based parent group Parents Involved in Community Schools, argues that school assignment should be race-blind.
The Vanderbilt research supports the school district‘s use of race in making placement decisions by demonstrating the benefits students gain from an integrated educational environment.
“We are pleased that Peabody research on magnet schools, student achievement and Department of Defense-sponsored schools will contribute to the court‘s deliberations in what could be two of the most significant racial integration cases since Brown v. Board of Education,” Smrekar, associate professor of public policy and education, said.
Goldring and Smrekar‘s research on magnet schools in urban areas and Berends‘ research on how changes in families and schools are related to trends in the black-white test score gap were included in a “social science statement” compiled by The Harvard Civil Rights Project for the Seattle case. Research by Smrekar and fellow Peabody Center for Education Policy members James Guthrie, Debra Owens and Pearl Sims on Department of Defense schools was also featured in a separate brief prepared by the Washington, D.C. law firm Fulbright & Jaworski.
The briefs are also being submitted in support of the school district in a similar case originating in Kentucky, Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, also on the court‘s Dec. 4 docket.
Berends is the director of the National Center on School Choice and associate professor of public policy and education. Guthrie is the principal investigator of the National Center on Performance Incentives, director of the Peabody Center for Education Policy, chair of the Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations and professor of public policy and education. Sims is a lecturer in education and director of the university‘s Leadership Development Center.
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Media contact: Melanie Moran, (615) 322-NEWS
Melanie.moran@vanderbilt.edu