Socioeconomic-Based School Assignment Policy and Racial Segregation Levels: Evidence From the Wake County Public School System

In the wake of political and legal challenges facing race-based integration, districts have turned to socioeconomic integration initiatives in an attempt to achieve greater racial balance across schools. Empirically, the extent to which these initiatives generate such balance is an open question. In this article, we leverage the school assignment system that the Wake County Public School System employed throughout the 2000s to provide evidence on this issue. Although our results show that Wake County Public School System’s socioeconomic-based assignment policy had negligible effects on average levels of segregation across the district, it substantially reduced racial segregation for students who would have attended majority-minority schools under a residence-based assignment policy. The policy also exposed these students to peers with different racial/ethnic backgrounds, higher mean achievement levels, and more advantaged neighborhood contexts. We explore how residential context and details of the policy interacted to produce this pattern of effects and close the article by discussing the implications of our results for research and policy.

Comparing Early and Late Twentieth-Century Boston and Chicago Male Juvenile Offenders: What Changed?

To investigate changes in characteristics of delinquents over time, randomly selected contemporary delinquents (Zagar, et al., 1980–1988; n = 2,031) were compared with 3 historical Chicago and Boston samples (Healy & Bonner, 1909–1915, n = 2,000; Healy & Bonner, 1917–1923, n = 2,000; Glueck & Glueck, 1917–1922, n = 1,000). All underwent physical, psychiatric, psychological, school, and social examinations. Contemporary delinquents had more assault, burglary, homicide, alcohol and substance abuse, gang membership, head injury, overdose, and single parents. Historical delinquent samples had more thieves and families with both biological parents. Historical delinquent mean IQ was 5 points below standardization average; modern delinquents were 22 points lower. Contemporary offenders were a greater portion of the county public school-aged population. Current more sensitive and specific examinations account for increases in observed overdoses and head injuries in the 1980s sample. Other demographic differences between contemporary and 3 historical delinquent samples were robust. Findings are discussed with respect to a need for early actuarial assessment and empirical treatment of the costliest delinquents: the dropouts, alcoholics, addicts, career delinquents-criminals, and homicide-prone youth.

Right Turns Only: An Evaluation of a Video-Based, Multicultural Drug Education Series for Seventh Graders

This study assessed the effectiveness of a video-based, multicultural drug education series for seventh graders. Right Turns Only (RTO) was produced by the Prince George's County Public School System in Maryland and funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. Knowledge, attitude, and behavioral intentions of 1,036 seventh-grade students who received the RTO curriculum alone or as a supplement to a traditional drug education curriculum (SMART) were measured to test the effects of this video series and its collateral print materials.