School Desegregation in Large Cities: A Critique of the Coleman "White Flight" Thesis

In this article, Thomas Pettigrew and Robert Green closely examine sociologist James S. Coleman's research and public statements on the relationship between school desegregation and white school enrollment. Describing their own study and other studies whose findings diverge from Coleman's, they contend that Coleman's research is methodologically and conceptually faulty and that it provides no basis for his highly publicized conclusion that urban school desegregation leads to massive"white flight." Rather, they argue, his and others' research tends to support metropolitan solutions to school segregation. The authors criticize Coleman for failing to distinguish between his scientific findings and his personal beliefs and go on to comment more generally on the delicate relationship between social science and the mass media.