Merging public elementary schools to reduce racial/ethnic segregation.

ABSTRACT: Diverse schools can help address implicit biases and increase empathy, mutual respect, and reflective thought by fostering connections between students from different racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and other backgrounds. Unfortunately, demographic segregation remains rampant in US public schools, despite over 70 years since the passing of federal legislation formally outlawing segregation by race. However, changing how students are assigned to schools can help foster more integrated learning environments. In this article, we explore "school mergers" as one such under-explored, yet promising, student assignment policy change. School mergers involve merging the school attendance boundaries, or catchment areas, of schools and subsequently changing the grades each school offers. We develop an a

SUBMITTER: Landry M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11879517 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature