MAKING SCHOOL INTEGRATION WORK IN NEW YORK CITY SCHOOLS: A LONG-TERM SOLUTION TO THE ENDURING PROBLEM OF SEGREGATION AND INEQUALITY.

• Author: Roda, Allison

Introduction 450 I. The Legal and Political Landscape of School Integration Efforts 452 II. School Integration Efforts in New York City 455 A. A Promising School Case in New York City 457 III. The Merger Remedy in Morris County, New Jersey 460 A. Community School District 13 Case Study 467 IV. Applying the Lessons from Morris to New York City 468 Conclusion 471 INTRODUCTION

According to the UCLA Civil Rights Project, New York State has one of the most racially segregated school systems in the country, with New York City as a major contributor to that problem. (2) Segregation deprives students of equal educational opportunities because it creates divides in access to well-trained teachers, advanced classes, and resources, affecting educational inputs, outcomes, and learning opportunities. (3) Those "mechanisms... link segregation to disparate [educational] outcomes." (4) When students are unable to access equitable opportunities to learn due to a lack of access to racially diverse classrooms and teachers, their achievement and educational trajectories are negatively affected. (5) For example, on average, Black students are two grade levels below white students, and students from low-income districts are four grade levels below students from high-income districts. (6) In a recent analysis, researchers found a statistically significant relationship between segregated schools with predominantly low-income students of color and lower mean literacy scores. (7)

Although some consider integration to be a failed experiment of the past, many scholars still believe it is a worthy goal to pursue because, when done right, all children benefit academically and socially from racially and socioeconomically (SES) diverse classrooms. (8) The short-term and long-term advantages of integration include higher educational achievement, attainment, and earnings, as well as improved race relations and social stability. (9)

Policy makers and researchers most often blame the high levels of school segregation in New York City on two factors: (1) neighborhood segregation and (2) school choice policies that allow advantaged parents (10) to enroll their children in highly coveted schools and programs. (11) Research has consistently shown that school choice benefits the mostly white, advantaged parents in the City who choose to leave their neighborhood schools for choice schools and Gifted & Talented (G&T) programs. (12) Given that neighborhood segregation and school choice are the two greatest contributing factors to school segregation, the best option moving forward would be to change the way in which New York City assigns students to public schools.

In this Essay, we argue that legal and policy reforms should be used strategically with other integration techniques to make New York City schools more racially diverse and equitable. We draw on the findings from Making School Integration Work: Lessons from Morris (13) to show how the top-down legal remedy and student-assignment policy adopted by the Morris School District (MSD) in Morris County, New Jersey, can be applied to the New York City context.

Part I provides the legal and political context that informs school integration efforts. Part II describes New York City's current school integration strategies, including a school leader's unique admissions policy, to preserve school diversity. Part III explains how the 1971 Jenkins lawsuit and subsequent merger created MSD. Part III then describes how district leadership in MSD has worked to advance true integration, from the merger to today. In Part IV, this Essay applies the lessons learned from the Morris case to the New York City context and concludes by offering other relevant strategies that should be used in combination with the proposed top-down policy approach.

1. THE LEGAL AND POLITICAL LANDSCAPE OF SCHOOL INTEGRATION EFFORTS

   This Part describes potential legal tools for dismantling school segregation in New York City and discusses the constitutional limits the Supreme Court imposes on policy strategies for increasing racial diversity in schools.

   Historically, litigation has been an essential tool for integration, "provid[ing] either an important incentive for voluntary local action or an effective ultimate sanction if government authorities refuse to act." (14) Today, in order to succeed on a Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection challenge, a plaintiff must satisfy a high evidentiary bar--proving that the government's actions, whether related to housing or schools, amounted to intentional or de jure segregation. (15) Given that demonstrating de jure segregation remains unattainable in New York City, (16) lawyers must explore other legal pathways. (17)

   While New York State does not have the same anti-segregation or education laws as New Jersey, and the State's highest court has construed the State constitution's education clause relatively narrowly, (18) New York City does have a progressive civil rights law that lawyers could perhaps leverage for school integration purposes. (19) Andrea Alajbegovic's 2019 Note argued there is a plausible legal claim that the level of school segregation in New York City violates the NYC Human Rights Law (NYCHRL), and that it is a preferable legal theory, especially given that lawyers have not been successful using the federal Equal Protection Clause or the New York State Constitution. (20) If state or city officials fail to take action necessary to integrate the schools, the NYCHRL or other legal avenues may have to be pursued. There have been successful suits under NYCHRL related to job, housing, and police discrimination cases based on race and sexual harassment--paving the way for New York City school segregation lawsuits. (21)

   Such a lawsuit, initiated on behalf of students and parents by a civil rights, civic, or community organization, would put pressure on the Mayor, Chancellor, and Department of Education (DOE), if not the Governor and state legislature, to act on their unfulfilled promise to address school segregation. Even if such a suit did not succeed in producing a definitive legal mandate, it could alter the political dynamic. (22)

   As part of a larger integration strategy in New York, we believe there should be an amendment to the New York State Constitution, like New Jersey's 1947 anti-segregation state constitutional provision, or a strong piece of legislation, such as New Jersey's 1881 statute. (23) Both explicitly barred segregation in schools on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, or ancestry. (24) The Governor of a progressive state like New York could use his bully pulpit to sponsor and support these state constitutional amendments or statutes.

   While the U.S. Supreme Court's Parents Involved in Community Schools (PICS) decision limited school districts' use of race as the sole criterion for student enrollment decisions, it did not limit the use of race as one factor among others, or as a general consideration. (25) In 2011, under the Obama Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice and the DOE published a "Dear Colleague" letter entitled "Guidance on the Voluntary Use of Race to Achieve Diversity and Avoid Racial Isolation in Elementary and Secondary Schools." (26) The Guidance advised policy makers on legally permissible strategies to achieve racial diversity based on Justice Kennedy's PICS concurrence. For instance, it advised that "[a] school district could give special consideration to students from neighborhoods selected specifically because of their racial composition and other factors. In the selection process, a district would treat all the students who live in the selected neighborhood the same regardless of their race." (27) Although the federal government no longer supports school integration efforts--the Trump Administration rescinded the 2011 Guidance in 2017--Justice Kennedy's PICS concurrence still outlines legally permissible strategies for pursuing school integration. (28) Those include socioeconomic-based integration plans, rezoning school district boundaries, and magnet schools or districtwide school choice policies that have student diversity targets. (29)

2. SCHOOL INTEGRATION EFFORTS IN NEW YORK CITY

   The opportunity to attend racially diverse schools and classrooms has been shown to provide students with a host of academic and social-emotional benefits, (30) including increased achievement, college-going rates, and academic self-confidence, as well as decreased chances of dropping out and rates of racial biases. (31) During the school desegregation era's peak in the 1980s, researchers found that it was the most effective strategy in closing opportunity gaps between Black and white students. (32) Today, urban school districts, like New York City, are often segregated by both race and SES, which negatively affects students of color because they are often segregated in high-poverty, low-achieving schools. (33) Although often not mentioned in court cases or in the scholarly literature, racial segregation does have negative consequences for white students concentrated in disproportionately white schools with better resources. (34) White students in predominantly white schools can develop ideas about white superiority and negative racial stereotypes about the "other" because they have limited opportunities to interact with students of color and fewer chances of creating cross-racial relationships. (35) Achieving school desegregation--the movement of bodies through busing or school district merger--is a "necessary, though, inadequate, step" towards integration, (36) a cultural transformation of curriculum, pedagogy, culture, and climate that leads to student body social cohesion. (37) Yet, most urban school districts have moved away from desegregation and integration as a legal or policy tool to achieve more equitable, high-quality schools. Beginning in the 1990s, policy officials put their hopes in school choice and the power of...