TY - JOUR AU - Clotfelter, Charles T AU - Ladd, Helen F AU - Vigdor, Jacob L TI - Federal Oversight, Local Control, and the Specter of "Resegregation" in Southern Schools JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 11086 PY - 2005 Y2 - January 2005 DO - 10.3386/w11086 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11086 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11086.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Charles T. Clotfelter Sanford School of Public Policy Sanford 236 201 Science Drive Box 90245 Duke University Durham, NC 27708 Tel: 919/613-7361 E-Mail: charles.clotfelter@duke.edu Helen Ladd Sanford School of Public Policy Box 90245 Duke University Durham, NC 27708 Tel: 919-613-7352 Fax: 919-681-8288 E-Mail: hladd@duke.edu Jacob L. Vigdor Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance University of Washington Box 353055 Seattle, WA 98195 Tel: 206/616-4436 Fax: 206/543-1096 E-Mail: jvigdor@uw.edu M2 - featured in NBER digest on 2011-11-18 AB - Analyzing data for the 100 largest school districts in the South and Border states, we ask whether there is evidence of "resegregation" of school districts and whether levels of segregation can be linked to judicial decisions. We distinguish segregation measures indicating the extent of racial isolation from those indicating the degree of racial imbalance across schools. For the period 1994 to 2004 the trend in only one measure of racial isolation is consistent with the hypothesis that districts in these regions are resegregating. Yet the increase in this measure appears to be driven by the general increase in the nonwhite percentage in the student population rather than policy-determined increases in racial imbalance. Racial imbalance itself shows no trend over this period. Racial imbalance is nevertheless associated with judicial declarations of unitary status, suggesting that segregation in schools might have declined had it not been for the actions of federal courts. This estimated relationship is subject to a lag, which is in keeping with the tendency for courts to grant unitary status only if districts agree to limit their own freedom to reassign students. ER -