Kansas University Professor Measures the Impact of Desegregation: During a recent session at the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting, Dr. Argun Saatcioglu, an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy and an adjunct assistant professor of sociology at the University of Kansas, asserted that desegregation increased schools’ contribution to minority success.
Since school desegregation in most states produced only modest academic gains for minority students, desegregation, to a large extent, has been outlawed as a type of educational reform. But, Saatcioglu argues that there is hidden value in integrated schools.
In a recent study, Saatcioglu examined the impact segregated, desegregated and resegregated schools in Cleveland had on Black and White students over a 30-year period. He suggests that while desegregation did little to improve students’ performance in terms of test scores and graduation rates, it was able to increase the impact that the schools made in the lives of the children.
According to Saatcioglu’s report, “The Hidden Value of School Desegregation,” desegregated schools didn’t fail students; they empowered them, to a large extent. Unfortunately, test scores remained low because of social and economic impediments outside the school, the report says."
