It’s been seventy years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, a momentous ruling that ordered public schools be integrated across the country.
Since 1954, what’s changed? In New York, not much, actually. A recent bombshell report by the UCLA Civil Rights Project determined New York is the most segregated state in the U.S. for Black students, and the second most segregated for Latine students after California.
But in one Brooklyn school district, the needle is finally moving. The change is thanks to years of legwork by parents, teachers, social workers, policymakers, and politicians; as well as architects and planners from WXY.
The District 15 Plan
New York City has 32 local school districts. District 15—the area between Cobble Hill and Sunset Park, Brooklyn—was the second most socioeconomically segregated in 2018. (Cobble Hill is very rich and very white; Sunset Park is working class and diverse—the poverty rate there is 20.7 percent.) Now, six years later, District 15 is the 19th most segregated school district according to an evaluation released by WXY in late June.
The improvement started after officials launched the D15 Diversity Plan (D15 Plan) during the 2019–20 school year—a community-based program to integrate D15’s middle schools. WXY designed and led the extensive public engagement process that went into the D15 Plan’s formulation.
“As a firm focused on the well-being of cities, we recognize that cities and neighborhoods are shaped by their schools,” Adam Lubinsky, a principal at WXY, said in a statement. “Our work with District 15 has been an opportunity to look at new models for creating more equitable schools and neighborhoods.”
Quantifying Segregation
The problem was laid out crystal clear in 2014 by the Civil Rights Project, a think tank out of UCLA. The study concluded that about 90 percent of Black students and 84 percent of Latine students in New York attended non-white (ipso facto segregated) schools. Meanwhile, only 11 percent of white students and 43 percent of Asian students attended schools where they were the minority.
Seven years later, in 2021, the UCLA Civil Rights Project ran the numbers again, and found the same results. How could this be? It turns out the rapid expansion of charter schools, gentrification, and a controversial education policy called “school choice” all created disparity.
The path toward school integration has been a long and arduous one, a struggle that’s now paying off. The D15 Plan made 64 total recommendations to create greater equity in District 15, most of which were employed starting in 2019. These included the removal of admissions screens, a priority lottery for students in low-income households, more multilingual classrooms, and temporary housing for students in distress; among other strategies.
WXY, the New York architecture and planning office, used interactive models and infographics to help facilitate meetings and conversations between stakeholders during this process. The experiment in District 15 was later covered in a 2020 episode of Nice White Parents, a podcast by The New York Times.
Measuring Success
In 2022, WXY launched a year-long evaluation to determine whether or not the D15 Plan was working. This involved measuring its impact on school integration and how it affected academic performance. Students, social workers, guidance counselors, parents/caregivers, teachers, and principals were interviewed in small-group listening sessions. These workshops provided multiple translators, transit passes, food, and childcare to make them as accessible as possible.
The results were noticeable. During the 2022–23 school year, D15 middle schoolers achieved 7 percent higher math scores and 5 percent higher English scores than their peers citywide. There’s also been a significant jump that indicates many more students in D15 are taking advanced math classes. Moreover, the removal of admissions screens decreased stress and anxiety levels among students, creating better mental health.
Aside from better test scores, the benefits have also been qualitative. WXY learned from educators and social workers that suspensions in D15 have decreased (whereas suspensions across New York City have increased significantly). Teachers also noted more friendships between students from different neighborhoods and socioeconomic backgrounds.
“This process and evaluation helped us identify collectively how District 15 will continue to champion equity and integration in our schools. There is always more work to do and now we have a report that will serve as our guidepost.” said Nicole Lanzillotto, Deputy Superintendent for District 15. Moving forward, policymakers hope to replicate the D15 Plan in other school districts.
