Abstract

Does the end of racial integration affect the racial demographics of school districts and the test scores of students? I analyze the impact of the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, which struck down Seattle Public School’s racial integration plan. The court ruling’s sudden and unexpected nature allows for a quasi-experimental interpretation of demographic changes and student outcomes after the court ruling. Using a variety of difference-in-differences models and placebo testing, I find the court ruling had two main effects: (1) white families were 20 percent more likely to live in Seattle after 2007 and (2) the test scores of black students increased at a significantly higher rate than those of white students causing the racial test score gap in math to decrease by 10 percent. These findings indicate the court ruling both mitigated the historical trend of white flight and reduced the racial test score gap. This paper emphasizes the unintended consequences of racial integration policies and the tradeoffs policymakers face when aiming to improve educational equity.