Demographic change, attendance area adjustment and school system impacts
Clark, W.A.V.
Population Research and Policy Review 6(3): 199-222
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0167-5923 Document Number: 349583
In the extensive litigation over school board liability for segregated schools, a great deal of attention has been focused on changes in school attendance areas. Evidence presented in several trials suggested that school boards have gerrymandered boundaries to keep some schools "black" and others "white." Even though both district and appeal courts have found violations in attendance zone changes, there has been little other than anecodotal evidence to support these findings. In many cases the areas with the most changes in attendance boundaries are also the areas of rapid racial transition, but correlation does not necessarily mean causation. This case study examines boundary changes in Topeka and suggests that racial change in schools is more directly attributable to demographic shifts than to attendance boundary changes.