Copyright © 2003 - Trustees of Harvard University.
All rights reserved.
This document, either in whole or in part,  may NOT be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded,
posted, transmitted, or distributed in any way, except that you may download
one copy of it on any single computer for your personal, non-commercial home use only,
provided you keep intact this copyright notice.
Document Source: Civil Rights Project/ Harvard University

January 16, 2003
A Multiracial Society with Segregated Schools
Are We Losing the Dream?

By Erica Frankenberg, Chungmei Lee and Professor Gary Orfield




Executive Summary
 
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, American public schools are now twelve years into the process of continuous resegregation. The desegregation of black students, which increased continuously from the 1950s to the late 1980s, has now receded to levels not seen in three decades. Although the South remains the nation's most integrated region for both blacks and whites, it is the region that is most rapidly going backwards as the courts terminate many major and successful desegregation orders.
This report describes patterns of racial enrollment and segregation in American public schools at the national, regional, state, and district levels for students of all racial groups. Our analysis of the status of school desegregation in 2000 uses the NCES Common Core of Data for 2000-01, which contains data submitted by virtually all U.S. schools to the Department of Education. Additionally, this report examines trends in desegregation and, now, resegregation over the last one-third century.
Key findings of the study include:
Desegregation has been a substantial accomplishment and is linked to important gains for both minority and white students. Just as more and more convincing evidence of those gains is accumulating, school systems are actually being ordered to end successful desegregation plans they would prefer to continue. This is not driven by public opinion, which has become more supportive of desegregated schools (most of which have been achieved through choice mechanisms in the past two decades). The persisting high levels of residential segregation for Blacks and increasing levels for Latinos in the 2000 Census indicate that desegregated education will not happen without plans that make it happen. We recommend a set of policies that would slow and eventually reverse the trends reported here.
Race matters strongly and segregation is a failed educational policy. Any policy framework must explicitly recognize the importance of integrated education not only as a basic education goal but also as a compelling societal interest. Specific policies to address this include:
A great deal of long-lasting progress was achieved when this issue was last seriously addressed, a third of a century ago. If we are not to lose those gains and if we are to be ready for a profoundly multiracial society with no racial majority we must begin to face the trends documented here and devise solutions that will work now.

[1] Due to data limitations, it is impossible to separate subgroups of Asians based on national origin, which masks important differences among these groups.
[2] Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717 (1974).
{3] Clotfelter, C. (1998). “Public School Segregation in Metropolitan Areas.” NBER Working Paper 6779.
[4] Board of Education of Oklahoma v. Dowell, 498 U.S. 237(1991); Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U.S. 467 (1992); and Missouri v. Jenkins, 115 S. Ct. 2038 (1995).


To view the COMPLETE REPORT and study conducted by The Civil Rights Project go to:

A Multiracial Society with Segregated Schools: Are We Losing the Dream?
 
 



END OF DOCUMENT