Politics & society, Research

Berkeley Talks: Rucker Johnson on why school integration works (revisiting)

UC Berkeley public policy professor Rucker Johnson discusses his 2019 book, Children of the Dream


Read the transcript.

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High school students sit in a classroom

Integrated students sit in a classroom at Anacostia High School on Sept. 10, 1957, three years after the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Bolling v. Sharpe case that outlawed school segregation in the District of Columbia. (Photo by Warren K. Leffler; courtesy of the Library of Congress via Flickr)

Brown v. Board of Education was hailed as a landmark decision for civil rights. But decades later, many consider school integration a failure. UC Berkeley professor Rucker Johnson’s 2019 book, Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works, shows the exact opposite is true. The book looks at decades of studies to show that students of all races who attended integrated schools fared better than those who did not.

In this January 2019 interview with Goldman School of Public Policy Dean Henry Brady, Johnson explains how he and his team analyzed the impact of not just integration, but school funding policies and the Head Start program.

Listen to the full conversation in Berkeley Talks episode #117: “Rucker Johnson on why school integration works (revisiting).”

This lecture was recorded by UCTV, the UC Public Policy Channel. Watch the video below.

The Goldman School of Public Policy, with the Berkeley Institute for the Future of Young Americans, also produces a podcast, Talk Policy To Me.

Professor Rucker Johnson discusses his 2019 book, Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works. (UCTV video)

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