Collaborative Research: School Segregation and Resegregation: Using Case Studies and Public Polls to Understand Citizen Attitudes

为什么一些学区能够维持学校取消种族隔离，而另一些学区则不能？尽管社会科学家一直在积极研究学校种族构成对学生成绩的影响，但相对被忽视的是，在导致学区隔离本身的社会因素中纳入了地区之间的差异。研究小组将利用五个案例研究和民意调查，研究公民特征与他们支持(或不支持)学校废除种族隔离的态度和价值观之间的关系。这项研究通过在每个地点进行民意调查，增加了五个经过战略选择的案例研究的价值，这些案例包括北卡罗来纳州维克县(罗利)、田纳西州戴维森县(纳什维尔)、肯塔基州杰斐逊县(路易斯维尔)、北卡罗来纳州夏洛特-梅克伦堡和南卡罗来纳州罗克希尔。这些民意调查将揭示成年人态度的相似和不同，这些态度可以追溯到这些学区维持废除种族隔离学校的时间长短的差异。研究结果对本文研究的五个学区以外的其他学区在制定政策方面具有借鉴意义，这些政策将更好地支持学生的社会经济融合，通过促进教育成就和社会向上流动来增强多样性，特别是针对高危学生。一些学区多年来一直在废除种族隔离，而另一些学区则没有。现有的研究主要是基于案例研究。案例研究的外部效度有限，而且方法往往是不同的，因为研究人员提出的问题和引用的理论不同。从深度访谈、参与者观察和文件分析中获得的数据很少与理论驱动的学区成年人口调查数据进行三角划分。这些态度和价值观在解释学区当前的学校分配政策以及为未来的政策提供参考方面发挥了重要作用。这项研究使用共同的理论观点，通过互动语音回答了一份基本通用的问卷，并辅之以手机样本，跨越五个学区，解决了现有社会科学文献中关于废除种族隔离的差距。这项研究将产生至少5000名成年受访者的民意调查数据。分析将(1)将每个民意调查嵌入每个案例的现有定性数据中；以及(2)使用民意调查数据来分析不同地点的价值观和态度的共性和差异。

Why are some school districts able to sustain school desegregation while others are not? Although social scientists have been active in studying the effects of school racial composition on student achievement, relatively neglected is the inclusion of variation among districts in the social factors that lead to school district segregation itself. Using five case studies and public opinion polls, the research team will study the relationship between citizen characteristics and their attitudes and values supporting (or failing to support) school desegregation. This study increases the value of five strategically chosen case studies including those of Wake County, NC (Raleigh); Davidson County, TN (Nashville); Jefferson County, KY (Louisville); Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC and Rock Hill, SC by fielding an opinion poll in each location, where the polls contain mostly common questions across sites. These polls will reveal similarities and differences in adult attitudes that track to differences in how long these districts have sustained desegregated schools. Study findings have implications for other school districts beyond the five studied here in terms of formulating policy that will better support socioeconomic mixing of students, which enhances diversity by promoting educational attainment and upward mobility in society, especially for at-risk students. Some school districts sustain desegregation over many years while others do not. Existing research is largely based on case studies. Case studies have limited external validity and are often heterogeneous in approach because researchers frame questions and invoke theory differently. The data obtained from in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analyses are rarely triangulated with data from theoretically-driven surveys of the school district's adult population. These attitudes and values play an important part in explaining districts' current school assignment policies and inform future policies as well. This study addresses gaps in existing social science literature on desegregation by using a common theoretical perspective and fielding a largely common questionnaire via Interactive Voice Response, supplemented by cell phone samples, across five school districts. The research will produce poll data on a minimum of 5000 adult respondents. Analysis will (1) embed each poll within the existing qualitative data on each case; and (2) use the poll data to analyze both commonalities and differences in values and attitudes across sites.