allow for upward mobility. Standardized achievement test scores have been shown to be higher for black students attending private schools compared to public schools; however samples are not matched for socioeconomic status or educational motivation (Ascher, 1986).
In a more recent investigation of integration in public and private schools, Greene and Mellow (1998) studied a randomly drawn sample of public and private schools in two cities. Data from 38 pubic and private schools was collected. Race and seat location of students in the lunchrooms was recorded and a total of 4,302 students were observed. Findings showed that private schools are more racially integrated than public schools. It was concluded that public schools replicate and reinforce racial segregation in housing and private schools do not since they donÆt require students to live in certain neighborhoods.
The Latino flight hypothesis states that Latinos are also fleeing to private schools due to blacks school children, as are whites (Fairlie, 2002). Fairlie stated that several studies show that white studentsÆ choice of school is influenced by racial composition of the local student population. A review of the National Center for Educational Statistics data set showed that Latinos do not respond differently than whites with regard to blacks and are fleeing to private schools. Thus as pointed out by Topolnicki (1994) diversity is found in both public and private schools; 12% of private schools nationwide are all-white compared to 9% of publics schools that are all-white.
A related factor for school choice is that of student victimization at school. According to the 1993 National Household Education Survey, students from public and private schools witness, have knowledge of, or have been subjected to bullying, physical attack, or robbery. Of all the responses, 71% from grades 6-12 were aware of the threatening conditions and 56% had witnessed this v...