Subjective Research: Indepth Look at Integration

In an earlier post, I said I would look at the Greene and Mellow Study from 1998 about private schools providing more of an integrated setting than public schools. I have read the study and it has major flaws. First, I don't even want to link to the study because it is ridiculous how they performed the study and how they form their conclusion. But here it is so you too can find it flawed. I am remembering more and more about how ANYTHING can be published on the internet...and it doesn't make the author credible. I remember drilling this into my students' heads as they did their research on Wikipedia! I promise to deliver more sound advice through better research in future posts.

The problems that I see in this study are bulleted here:

• The authors don't disclose the location, but they claim it could be Anytown, USA. I find this hard to accept because I know how segregated schools are because of the neighborhood that one lives in. Where they rural, suburban, urban? I am reminded about the Race maps of America graphics.
• The authors only studied two public schools and two private schools.
• The authors looked at the faces of the child to determine what race they were. This is problematic since the authors didn't have actual evidence of ethnic identity. 
• They stated that private school student's may be more willing to integrate because of their higher class status. 

 Again, my apologies for getting people excited about this study. I promise to do better research next time.