In Making School Integration Work: Lessons from Morris, scholars Paul Tractenberg, Allison Roda, Ryan Coughlan, and Deirdre Dougherty make a forceful argument that school integration can—and does—improve educational opportunities for students of color. It is an important claim because it has been difficult for scholars to prove that racial mixing remediates educational inequality. For instance, we know that test scores and graduation rates of Black students improved following desegregation in the South, but it is less clear why. Was it a result of more funding, higher expectations, and better resources in racially mixed schools, or improvements in technology, curriculum, and pedagogy unrelated to school desegregation? This complicated causal relationship between school integration and improved educational equality makes it difficult for supporters to persuade districts, legislators, and the general public that school integration—which almost always requires busing students away from their neighborhood school—is worth it.
This book analyzes how school integration has improved the quality of public education for all students in the diverse Morris School District (MSD) in northern New Jersey as well as where it has fallen short. It is a smart and sophisticated analysis accessible to scholars, school leaders, teachers, and parents. The central argument is that “true integration” requires more than simply mixing Black and White students. “Integration is about decentering whiteness—creating educational opportunities and spaces that are affirming and empowering to all students” (p. 3). Truly integrated schools would be racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically balanced at every level: district, school, and classroom. Administrators would eliminate tracking, offer culturally responsive pedagogy and inclusive curricula, and utilize nonpunitive forms of student discipline, such as restorative justice.
MSD has come closer than most school districts in making the vision of true integration a reality. It was formed in 1971 by court order after predominantly White, wealthy suburban Morris Township tried to withdraw its students from Morristown High School, which had much higher numbers of Black and working-class students. The New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed that the commissioner of education had the power to refuse this request and the authority to merge the two school districts at the K-12 level. The decision was extremely controversial—the commissioner lost his job soon after, and later state officials declined to take such bold action. Nevertheless, MSD survived and thrived, and has functioned as a kind of self-contained living experiment in the possibilities and limitations of school integration.
The authors employ a “mixed methodology research approach” (p. 6), including legal history, statistical analysis of test scores and student demographics, interviews, focus groups, and classroom observations to analyze four central topics: using law to advance school integration, the role of educational leadership, the Black student experience at MSD, and the Latinx student experience at MSD. Chapter 2 investigates the power of the law to generate school integration by focusing on the case that resulted in MSD: Jenkins v. Township of Morris School District and Board of Education (1971). Despite its effectiveness in creating more equitable schools, Jenkins was never replicated in New Jersey because of vocal White opposition to state-ordered school desegregation. The authors conclude that forcing school districts to merge to generate racial mixing is therefore not a viable strategy, and instead New Jersey should propose a statewide desegregation plan that would “rearrange” all school district lines as a cost-cutting measure that would happen to enable more diversity. They actively encourage state leaders to use legal remedies to break down what has become staggeringly high levels of school segregation in order to create more racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse schools.
Chapter 3 focuses on Mackey Pendergrast, a White superintendent who believed successful school integration required enthusiastic community support. To generate this support, he organized meetings with NAACP members, local churches, and other community organizations to talk about educational discrimination, school-family relations, White and middle-class flight, property values, and other concerns. Pendergrast followed up on each of these conversations, for example, by working with local real estate agents to highlight the district's strengths to perspective buyers. The authors determine that effective school integration requires this kind of energetic and well-organized community outreach, and this chapter is intended to offer a kind of blueprint for how to do so.
Chapters 4 and 5 investigate the varied experiences of Black and Latinx families in MSD. We learn about the tireless advocacy of Black parents who fought to center the needs of Black students when administrators were more concerned with stemming White flight. Black students reported that they appreciated the diversity at MSD, but that they often felt ignored or overlooked in school. In particular, Black students craved more opportunities to talk about racial injustice with teachers and classmates in meaningful ways. As one student stated, “Race has always been a really taboo topic so no one likes to talk about the fact that minority students don't have . . . the support systems that a lot of White students have” (p. 116). The authors insist that true integration requires a more direct, critical engagement with racial justice in classrooms and extracurricular programs, which would require more teacher professional development and support.
Like many suburban school districts, the MSD has a growing Latinx student population, with significant numbers of recent arrivals from South and Central America. Seeing to the needs of these students has created unintended forms of internal segregation within schools. MSD alumna Manuela Villanueva, now in her forties, recalls being well integrated with White and Black peers at MSD when she was a student. Now, as an adult, she visits local schools and “often sees a whole separate English Language Learner (ELL) class full of little Latinx kids filing down the hall” (p. 129). District leaders are working with Latinx families to find a way to support ELL students in more integrated settings, such as dual-language classes and a Heritage Spanish program. The authors want all teachers (not just those who teach ELL classes) to become more aware of implicit biases and develop a critical view of US history with regard to race and privilege. They remind readers that second-, third-, and fourth-generation Latinx students, as well as those who identify as mixed-race, have different needs than recent immigrants, and that schools must be prepared to meet the needs of diverse Latinx populations.
Given that US public schools have been resegregating by race, ethnicity, and class since the late 1980s, this book offers hard evidence and a persuasive argument that school integration should remain at the forefront of contemporary educational reform. The authors do an especially good job examining the complexities within and between student populations, and it is satisfying to hear from so many students, parents, and teachers directly through extensive interviews and long quotes in the book. The book's takeaway arguments are not surprising or even necessarily original—Black Lives Matter at School and student activists in New York City have been making similar demands. The book makes its mark by amplifying these activist demands through rigorous scholarship, and it is clear the authors believe deeply not only in the equalizing function of school integration but also its essential civic purpose in a democracy.
