The Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University hosted a Poverty & Social Policy Seminar with Rucker Johnson, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley. Professor Johnson discussed his newly released book, Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works.

We are frequently told that school integration was a social experiment doomed from the start. But as Rucker C. Johnson demonstrates in Children of the Dream, it was, in fact, a spectacular achievement. Drawing on longitudinal studies going back to the 1960s, he shows that students who attended integrated and well-funded schools were more successful in life than those who did not—and this held true for children of all races. Since the high point of integration in 1988, we have regressed and segregation again prevails. In Children of the Dream, Rucker C. Johnson contends that integrated, well-funded schools are the primary engine of social mobility.

About Rucker Johnson

Rucker Johnson is the Chancellor’s Professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.  As a labor economist who specializes in the economics of education, Johnson’s work considers the role of poverty and inequality in affecting life chances.