This study analyzes the increase in school segregation in Delaware from a quantitative perspective. The article tests the hypothesis that the declaration of unitary status that released the Wilmington area school districts from their desegregation order caused the increase in segregation. The research reveals that the declaration of unitary status contributed to an increase in segregation in the Wilmington area. However, the primary factor in the statewide increase in school segregation was the flight of White students from the Wilmington area schools, a result that might be expected from the imposition of a desegregation order but not from its termination.
ArmorD. J.RossellC. H.WalbergH. J. (2002). The outlook for school desegregation. In RossellC. H.ArmorD. J.WalbergH. J. (Eds.), School desegregation in the 21st century (pp. 323-334). Portsmouth, NH: Greenwood.
2.
Belton v. Gebhart, 87 A.2d 862 (Del. Ch. 1952).
3.
BifulcoR.LaddH. F.RossS. L. (2009). Public school choice and integration evidence from Durham, North Carolina. Social Science Research, 38(1), 71-85.
4.
Brown v. Board of Education I, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
5.
Brown v. Board of Education II, 349 U.S. 294 (1955).
6.
ChemerinskyE. (1994). Lost opportunity: The Burger court and the failure to achieve equal educational opportunity. Mercer Law Review, 45, 999-1015.
7.
Delaware Code Ann., Title 14, Chapter 2, Subchapter II, Sections 220-223 (2008).
8.
Delaware State Board of Education. (2005). In re: Neighborhood school plans of Delmar, Seaford, Appoquinimink, Colonial, Christina, Red Clay Consolidated and Brandywine School District (Decision and order, Red Clay Consolidated School District neighborhood school plan, [Elementary School Assignments]). Retrieved from http://www.doe.k12.de.us/infosuites/ddoe/sbe/docs/sbe_NSARC6-16-05Decision.pdf
9.
FrankenbergE.LeeC. (2003). Charter schools and race: A lost opportunity for integrated education [Electronic version]. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 11, 23. Retrieved from http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/260
10.
GarciaD. R. (2008). Academic and racial segregation in charter schools: Do parents sort students into specialized charter schools?Education and Urban Society, 40, 590-612.
11.
GlennW. J. (in press). School resegregation: A synthesis of the evidence. The Education Forum.
12.
KozolJ. (2005). The shame of the nation: The restoration of apartheid schooling in America. New York, NY: Crown.
13.
LeeC. (2004). Is resegregation real?Cambridge, MA: Civil Rights Project.
14.
Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717 (1974).
15.
MorrisI. (2002). The role of Delaware lawyers in the desegregation of Delaware’s public schools: A memoir. Widener Law Symposium Journal, 9, 1-54.
16.
NAACP, Legal Defense and Education Fund, The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, The Center for the Study of Race and Law at The University of Virginia Law School. (2005). Looking to the future: Voluntary K-12 school integration. New York, NY: Authors.
17.
OrfieldG.LeeC. (2005). New faces, old patterns? Segregation in the multiracial south. Cambridge, MA: Civil Rights Project.
18.
OrfieldG.LeeC. (2007). Historic reversals, accelerating resegregation, and the need for new integration strategies. Los Angeles, CA: Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles.
19.
Parker v. University of Delaware, 75 A.2d 225 (Del. Ch. 1950).
20.
RaffelJ. A. (2002). After the court order: The changing faces of school desegregation in the Wilmington Metropolitan Area. Widener Law Symposium Journal, 9, 81-120.
21.
RosenbergG. N. (1991). The hollow hope: Can courts bring about social change?Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
22.
ScaringiJ. (2002). The Delaware tug-of-war over school desegregation: Constitutional case law. Legislative and administrative actions. Widener Law Symposium Journal, 9, 165-181.
WareL. B. (2004). Brown at Fifty Symposium: Educational equity and Brown v. Board of Education: Fifty years of school desegregation in Delaware. Howard Law Journal, 47, 299-321.
26.
WeiherG. R.TedinK. L. (2002). Does choice lead to racially distinctive schools? Charter schools and household preferences. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 21, 79-92.
