Bonnie Siegler

Bonnie Siegler is a sociologist who received a PhD from Columbia University in May 2025. Siegler’s research examines how organizations produce and attempt to reconcile racial inequality, focusing on K-12 schools. During her residence at the Institute for Diversity Science, Siegler will work with affiliate Eric Grodsky on a research project that aims to better understand parents’ preferences for dual language immersion (DLI) programs in schools. On the one hand, DLI programs can be highly effective at teaching non-native English speakers to be proficient in English and other subject matter, and some people believe these programs can reduce school ethnoracial, socioeconomic, and linguistic segregation. On the other hand, families within these programs report experiences of exclusion, questioning the effectiveness of DLI choice programs as a strategy for increasing intercultural exchange. How do race and language interact to inform parents’ preferences for DLI programs, and what role do biases play in informing these preferences? Moreover, can DLI programs truly reduce school segregation? Siegler is conducting a survey experiment to examine these key questions.

Research Areas

Organizations, Education, Race/Ethnicity, Inequality