More Schools Likely to Spur Diversity via Income

A WSJ article on how some districts successfully use income rather than race to achieve diversity:

Income-based plans began spreading in the 1990s as  race-based policies came under growing pressure in the federal courts. Most  seek to limit the percentage of low-income students in any one school by  dispersing them beyond their neighborhood schools and assigning higher-income  students to schools with a lower-income profile. The programs generally  identify low-income students as those qualifying for the federal free- and  reduced-price lunch program.


A wide body of research indicates that  lower-income students generally don't perform as well academically as their  middle-income classmates but that their achievement improves when they are  assigned to middle-class schools, which tend to have more resources,  experienced teachers and parental involvement.


Minority students tend to make up a large part of  the lower-income group that the plans are designed to benefit, so SES plans  often have a desegregation effect. But the income-based strategies appear to  be less vulnerable to court challenges. The Bush administration has endorsed  them, and federal courts have so far subjected classifications by income to  far less scrutiny than those involving  race.

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More Schools Likely to Spur Diversity via Income
By ROBERT TOMSHO  
June 29, 2007; Page B1
http://online.wsj.com/article/

When Jim Phillips moved into the Wake County Public School district in Raleigh, N.C., he presumed his daughter would attend the elementary school he could see from his front door. Instead, she was assigned to a school three miles away because of the district's campaign to diversify every school's student body based on family income.