Why Are Schools Still So Segregated?

Schools have become more and more segregated over the last 30 years. Why?

America’s school-age population is more racially diverse than it’s ever been before. Yet schools have become more and more segregated over the last 30 years. So what’s the deal? Wasn’t that all resolved back in 1954 when the Supreme Court prohibited school segregation?

**How segregated are K-12 public schools nowadays?

According to a study by UCLA’s Civil Rights Project, the number of public schools across the country with an almost entirely minority student body has more than tripled over the last 25 years. Today, almost 1 in 5 public schools in the U.S. have just about no white students.

**Why are schools still so segregated?

A bunch of different factors. Beginning in the late 1960s, a lot of segregated in the South were forced, under federal court order, to integrate. And although a lot of white communities weren’t super happy about it, it worked. School integration steadily increased over the next two decades, reaching a highpoint in 1988. Since then, though, many schools and communities have rapidly re-segregated, largely the result of more districts being released from their court orders and ending certain integration programs like cross-district busing.

There were other factors, too, including a mass exodus of mostly white middle class communities that starting moving from urban areas to the suburbs, in large part because of the schools.

So, in other words, forced segregation is still against the law: schools can’t prevent students from attending based on their skin color. But, without being aggressively pushed to integrate, many communities are still self-segregating.

**Why does school segregation matter?

Segregated schools have been shown to have disproportionately negative impacts on minority populations, especially in low-income communities. These students often attend schools with fewer resources, less experienced teachers and lower academic achievement rates. And that can affect everything from a students’ chances of graduating high school and going on to college to the kind of job they get and the amount of money they earn over the course of their careers.

SOURCES:

School segregation data: UCLA School Segregation Project

Student racial demographic data: U.S. Dept. of Education

Study on the Benefits of Racial and Socioeconomic Diversity in Schools

School segregation in eight charts: PBS Frontline

Study on reading proficiency in segregated schools: Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG)

School segregation and racial academic achievement gaps: Stanford University

School district racial data: EdBuild


#schoolsegregation #segregation #segregated

[andrewgeorge]

I'm homeschooled, so, I guess that means my school isn't diverse at all.

[TheCrochetaddict]

It's not something that needs to be fixed at schools, it's a community issue - provide opportunities for a diverse community, and the schools will become more diverse.

[alanamoss]

I would drive my kid 100 miles if it meant them going to the best school!

[Proust]

My school was integrated. And full of gangs. I couldn’t get to the second floor because the Haitian gang had taken it over and was jumping anyone who came through it to go to class. A lot of people nearly dropped out and failed out because of how vicious it was.

[charlestate]

I am Black and attended majority Black public schools in Gary, Indiana. It was super de facto segregated when I attended in the 1980s thru the 1990s. Even though my hometown has always been super liberal and has never EVER had a Republican in office in it's entire 113 year history there was a lot of racism and "White" flight in the city. When my parents moved there in the 1970s, Black people could only buy homes in certain parts of the city. The community we moved into was majority White. In a 5 year time span after we moved there, most of the White people sold their homes and moved to the suburbs. They even convinced the mayor of Gary to allow the new White suburbs to break off from the city of Gary and they formed their own township. The Gary public schools went from being among the top ranked schools in the country to among the worst by the 1980s and that is still the case today. It's a complex and troubling problem.

[flymypg]

In 1970 I started 9th grade in a New Jersey high school that was barely half white and where cross-district busing was a thing, though I lived walking-distance away. This was when the Civil Rights movement and opposition to the Viet Nam war were both hot issues among youth. There was lots of tension, and a significant degree of social separation, but there was also a concerted effort to understand differences and explore ways to work together. The most popular classes and clubs centered on debate, or had strong debate-related components (including a particularly memorable US History class).

Of course, the main problem was that everyone picked on the 9th graders, with absolutely no regard for race or economic status. As a skinny white boy, this same pressure helped me bond with my classmates, regardless of our other differences. Well, except for gender: I still thought girls were weird.

In late January of that class-year my family moved to Michigan, to a suburb north of Detroit filled mainly with car company executives. My new school was a junior high school, . My first impression concerned how totally white my new school was, and how uniform the economic status. The total homogeneity was a stark contrast. I was also now in the most senior class in the school, rather than the most junior. I felt like I had simultaneously been demoted to junior high, and elevated to the senior class. Taken together, the net effect was I felt adrift, cut loose from many of the things that had helped form the complex environment at my prior school.

My main distinguishing feature was my rapid-fire New Jersey accent, which was gone in less than 3 months, hammered down like a nail. I became a white-bread boy in a white-bread world. While I liked my classmates well enough, their organization and social cliques seemed superficial and trivial, concerned with hyper-fine differences (e.g., making fun of redheads and the tall/short), rather than focusing on (and living) the local and national issues of the day. School sports mattered more than racism or the war.

Simply put, I became bored with it all and withdrew, keeping only a few geeks and nerds as friends (and not especially close friends). This was not good for me, and I eventually dropped out of high school halfway through my senior year. I left Michigan, got a job at minimum wage, went to night school to get my diploma, then in 1975 joined the US Navy to give me time to breathe and find myself before going to college.

The Navy was the return to diversity I craved. At the time, the Navy was dealing with the dual-crises of racism and drugs, and with rampant sexism and homophobia as problems that wouldn't be addressed until the 1980's. But within bootcamp, at the schools that followed, and in the fleet, I served with folks who believed in doing our jobs, doing them well, and doing them together. The unity and Esprit de Corps was intoxicating and inspiring.

After the Navy I worked my way through university, another diverse experience, but burdened with an extremely heavy academic load that left little time for social interaction. Still, it was a great environment, and I was able to get work on-campus to spend more time within that community.

After college I became a white male engineer working with teams of other white male engineers. The diversity wasn't zero, but it was close. I was singularly unsuccessful in getting my peers to understand the inherent value of workplace diversity, and to seek it as part of our staff growth and development. However, I have seen gradual change as time went on.

Now, later in my career (I'm 61 with over 30 years experience), I've been facing my own encounter with latent bigotry: Ageism. Engineering is viewed as a career for the young, with only a passing nod given to a few revered "gray beards". Engineers who have chosen not to make the transition to management (including myself) find it increasingly difficult to obtain career-track employment: My bosses would be 20-30 years younger than me, which is fine by me but seems to be uncomfortable for them, to the point of passing me over after excellent interviews.

It seems they also fear I'd soon retire or get sick or something, and not be worth investing in as a future resource. Which flies in the face of the simple fact that, statistically, engineers change jobs every 4 years. Plus, both sides of my family, for multiple generations back, were healthy and active into their 90's, and don't handle retirement at all well. I expect to work through my 70s and into my 80s, not because of economic need, but because I simply enjoy working.

Worse yet, I look and feel at least a decade younger than my chronological age. I'm lean and extremely fit (I'm a triathlete). I eliminated my gray hair by the simple expedient of shaving my head. Yet this doesn't help as much as I'd hoped: Once folks learn my age (generally when I pull out my reading glasses), their enthusiasm wanes. My only recent work has been within the stifling environment of defense contractors, where 70% of the job is paperwork rather than direct engineering. They are desperate to fill chairs due to rampant turnover, and can't afford to limit their selections for reasons unrelated to engineering, yielding an exceptionally diverse workplace.

However, engineering, my love and joy, my ideal career, has become far less fun. But I still have at least a decade of active work ahead of me, likely two.

What to do? I started looking at alternative career paths. My first thought was to become an independent contractor/consultant, but I found my massive engineering experience did not mean I had gained the skills needed to start and run a small business, especially concerning marketing, networking, contracts and similar vital details.

I then started looking at any and all other careers where my engineering experience would be valuable, even if I weren't being paid as an engineer. My first thought was to become researcher/investigator for a patent attorney, since I had helped on some patents for a prior employer, and enjoyed the experience (not the writing or filing of the patent, but gathering and organizing the evidence for and against it).

But late last October, a few days before Halloween, I got beaten over the head with an enormous Clue-by-Four: There is a huge and unmet demand for STEM teachers, particularly those with relevant degrees and industry experience. I started talking with folks, and the enthusiasm I've received has been both unexpected and overwhelming.

I'm going to become a STEM teacher! Despite not having a teaching credential, I will have my own classroom this year, possibly within weeks, and certainly by the Fall. I've also chosen to target "under-resourced" schools, which also happen to be the most diverse.

I feel I'm coming back full-circle to my exciting 9th grade context, this time in the role of someone expected to make a difference.

(Edit: Clean up phrasing and word choices.)

[StoneCresent]

There is more to this than just an issue of segregation; there is also a disparity in wealth. Long story short, school districts often rely on property taxes to run and the exodus of the white middle-class (who had money) caused a decrease in property values. Hence urban schools got less money to work with.

Personally, my parents were probably among the "white-flight" and I recall my elementary, middle, and high schools were not especially diverse. However, things got more diverse over time especially after MasterCard plopped their HQ in town.

[hungarianhillbilly]

I find it interesting so many people find it noble to not give other people a choice.

[GeorgeDaniels-meru]

Diversity is overrated. Look at the Balkans, diversity at it's finest.

[ShaudaySmith]

Holy crap this was one of the least biased videos i've ever seen on school integration. I just received information, granted it was information i already knew, but it was pretty plainly doled out in nice little nuggets. She included the communities contentions with busing and the controversy of forced integration across the nation. Well done Above the Noise!

[Ken-noip]

I went to a ”diverse” middle school, and let me tell you I dont blame anyone for wanting their kids out of there.

[RAFTERMAN]

If you dont have to go to a heavily integrated school why would you want to?

[mrs.americanpie]

"pretty much no negative impacts" on white children is a helluva statement. They should be able to say there was no negative impact or what the minimal negative impact was, unequivocally. Many black scholars will say what the negative impacts of desegregation were for black people even as they judge it beneficial overall.

[erikkillmonger]

Even "diverse" schools are segregated, look at who is in the AP classes and who is mainly in the regular classes. If you been in these classes you know what I'm talking about. And yes, I'm a breaking brown member

[ralfrodriguez]

There is much more to this than just schools. I started noticed when I was younger with Halloween "let's go to this neighborhood because they give better candy and the area is nice" I thought why? Why can't we have that in the area we live at now. Another as an adult was target store "let's go to the target in this area they have better things and is better". I asked and was told it's cleaner....what ever that means but I notice at the local target people are to lazy to even walk their cart into the cart area. Idk those people of Walmart videos are the most unbiased ones their from every walks of life not giving a crap. It's just people.

[bffdanger]

We shouldn't force diversity for diversity sake. I think that this is why we need to have School Choice and kids 'education money" will follow them where ever they decide to go. This way if school demographics don't change, then that is because the parents chose to keep their kids in certain schools.

[babeena_gt_]

I know in New York there is a "No child left behind" act which allows the parents to choose which school their child goes to as long as the school isn't more then 15 miles from the students residence.

[TheRealFollower]

People self segregate. It's that simple. The Supreme Court made the right call about laws and segregation. The government however messed up with bussing. You can't force people to get along. It has to happen naturally.

[mamallama]

I grew up in white bread, podunk New Jersey. I didn't see a black person until I was 8. Then I started visiting my dad's work in Atlantic City... and everything I'd been taught about equality fractured. I'm lucky that my parents really did well in keeping what prejudices they might have had from me, and were honest when I asked why the black community was so separate and in such a dire state, why no one cleaned up the anti-semitic graffiti, and why the buses full of rich white people delivered them directly indoors at the casinos. THAT was an education that shocked and shaped my world forever. My husband, who grew up in several non-whitey-mcwhitepants areas, has a MUCH easier time integrating with diverse groups, and I really envy him that. I have a much more difficult time understanding regional and foreign accents, and such a lack of exposure to different culture that I fumble in diverse company. What a gift diversity is for growing minds.

[victoriamatthews]

. . . presently, The New Fairmont Heights High School that cost over $80 million, is 1 of 27 high schools in Maryland. Salaries are 40% above national average. The total “Minority Enrollment” is 100 percent. The total enrollment is only 665 students, and the total economically disadvantaged (% of total) is 65%.