The Case for Balance: Socioeconomic Diversity and Its Impact on Schooling

This essay outlines the case for keeping schools diverse socioeconomically as an important priority in school choice and school assignment. The author uses the current climate surrounding charter schools and private vouchers to connect to other times in the history of our nation’s schools when diversity was threatened, namely the civil rights era and the more current rhetoric surrounding bussing and the return to “neighborhood schools.”

Using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress as well as timely research articles and amicus/policy briefs on socioeconomic diversity and the re-segregation of schools, the article hopes to arm any child advocate with the information and rationale behind balance in school assignment, framing the three principal reasons as

1. socioeconomic diversity brings strength, stability, and parent/teacher satisfaction to schools,
2. socioeconomic diversity is cost effective, and
3. socioeconomic diversity produces greater academic gain at all income levels.

The article ends with practical ways that advocates can insure balance is a priority in the school and community.