School Selection or School Segregation?

Are students more limited in their choices for schools because of their race?

The U.S. has a longstanding issue with equal education and discrimination based on race, and this issue still stands strong today. Today nothing can be done legally unless the segregation is intentionally racist. Segregation in public schools is often attributed to how residential lines are drawn.

In an interesting article called “Magnet Schools and Other Means of Desegregation,” Marcy Crouch (1999) talks about how magnet schools are used to desegregate schools because they do not follow restriction about residential living and attracts kids from different places, but this isn’t always the case. The school selection process takes into account standardized testing, but not every middle school and elementary school gives their kids the same opportunities.

Citywide admission schools are similar to magnet schools, as there not restrictions by where you live. It is also a way to desegregate schools. Anyone can apply, and then they are accepted by lottery. By this logic the lottery should keep things random.

Philadelphia's high school selection is based on a student's grades and PSSA scores from seventh grade. If the school a student attends does not adequately prepare students for the testing, a student with perfect grades is limited to which schools the student can attend.

19130

The three public schools are all rated in “2020 High School Guide” given out this year. The academic ratings are based off of their standardized test scores, and each school is rated in math, reading, and science. There are rating on school incidents, student attendance, and college bound, which is from the numbers reported by the school. The overall score it is an average of the academic ratings and two of the other categories mentioned. The three schools in the zip code 19130 are very different in rating.

Benjamin Franklin High School is the public neighborhood school. It has the lowest score of the three, with and overall rating of 1. About 84% of their kids are black, 8% hispanic, 4% white, 3% asian, and 1% other.

Franklin Learning Center High School and Masterman are the two special admission schools. Franklin Learning center has an overall rating of 6, and the student population is about 53% black, 24% hispanic, 12% asian, 7% white, and 4% other. Masterman has an overall rating of 10, and its students are about 39% white, 29% asain, 16% white, 11% other, and 5% hispanic.

There is a huge gap between the racial makeup of the three schools. It’s odd the neighborhood school’s numbers don’t reflect the makeup of the neighborhood. There is an observable trend when there is an increase in diversity there is an increase in the school’s overall score. It is hard to tell why there is such a large gap in rating between the three schools. Why doesn't the neighborhood school have better overall scores, and why hasn’t there been a push to help schools with lower scores bring them up?

Lots of the schools with scores from 1-3 often have kids from low income homes and are predominantly black. These trends may not have malicious intent, but it is a huge issue that needs to change.

Implications for change