A Pew study has revealed Fort Bend ISD and Pasadena ISD, school districts in suburban Houston, are among the most segregated school systems in the country for Asian Americans Other Texas school districts in the top 25 include Round Rock ISD, a suburban school district north of Austin, and Garland ISD, between Dallas and Plano. The Chronicle points out that such segregation is a result of housing patterns and poorly-drawn school boundaries.
School District Metro Area Rank Montebello Unified Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 1 Dekalb County Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA 2 Pasadena ISD Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX 3 Fulton County Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA 4 Hacienda La Puente Unified Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 5 Rowland Unified Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 6 Fort Bend ISD Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX 7 Chino Valley Unified Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA 8 Knox County School District Knoxville, TN 9 Lodi Unified Stockton, CA 10 Chula Vista Elementary San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 11 North Clackamas SD 12 Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA 12 Dade Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL 13 Henrico County Public Schools Richmond, VA 14 Prince George’s County Public Schools Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 15 Jefferson Union High San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA 16 Marysville Joint Unified Yuba City, CA 17 Baltimore County Public Schools Baltimore-Towson, MD 18 Garden Grove Unified Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 19 El Monte Union High Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 20 Round Rock ISD Austin-Round Rock, TX 21 Greenville 01 Greenville-Mauldin-Easley, SC 22 Jersey City New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA 23 Frederick County Public Schools Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 24 Garland ISD Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 25
Do you think clustering children who “look the same” in the same few schools in a district is good or bad? Did you go to school in any of these school districts? Tell us your opinion or about your experience.
- Justin Gillenwater
A further review of Pew’s study indicated the grouping patterns by income and housing has indeed resulted in more “segregation”. However, the authors were quite careful to only draw certain conclusions by suggestion. The Texas examples – n. 3 & 7 – are mirrored at the same time by the Atlanta, Georgia cases – n. 1 & 4 -, and more egregiously by the L.A., California examples – n. 1, 5, 6, 19 & 20. The only Florida case is an error: listed as Dade are Ft Lauderdale and Pompano Beachm which are both much further north in Broward County. If geographical accuracy is a measure, the authors need to take a second look at their study.
By Quan on April 4th, 2009