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== History ==
== History ==
[[File:Educational separation in the US prior to Brown Map.svg | thumb | Jim Crow laws formalized school segregation in the United States, 1877-1954]]
[[File:Educational separation in the US prior to Brown Map.svg | thumb | Jim Crow laws formalized school segregation in the United States, 1877-1954]]
The formal segregation of blacks and whites in the United States began with the passage of [[Jim Crow laws]] following the end of the [[Reconstruction Era]] in 1877.<ref name=Rudd>[http://find.galegroup.com/gic/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=fb720fd31d9036c1ed2d1f3a0500fcc2&prodId=GIC&userGroupName=itsbtrial&tabID=T001&docId=CX2831400031&type=retrieve&contentSet=EBKS&version=1.0 "Racial Segregation in the American South: Jim Crow Laws."] ''Prejudice in the Modern World Reference Library''. Ed. Kelly Rudd, Richard Hanes, and Sarah Hermsen. Vol. 2. Detroit: UXL, 2007. 333-357. ''Global Issues In Context''. Web. 19 Oct. 2013. </ref>These laws, which were most prevalent in the South but also extended into the Southwest and Midwest, segregated blacks and whites in all aspects of public life, including attendance of public schools. <ref name="National Parks Service">{{cite web|title=Jim Crow Laws|url=http://www.nps.gov/malu/forteachers/jim_crow_laws.htm|publisher=National Parks Service|accessdate=1 November 2013}}</ref> Jim Crow laws did not exclusively apply to the segregation of whites and blacks; in Texas, for instance, Mexican-Americans, along with blacks, were prohibited from sharing restaurants, churches, and other public spaces with whites.<ref name=TEXAS>{{cite journal|last=De León|first=Arnoldo|coauthors=Robert A. Calvert|title=Segregation|journal=Handbook of Texas Online|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pks01|accessdate=1 November 2013}}</ref>
The formal segregation of blacks and whites in the United States began with the passage of [[Jim Crow laws]] following the end of the [[Reconstruction Era]] in 1877.<ref name=Rudd>[http://find.galegroup.com/gic/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=fb720fd31d9036c1ed2d1f3a0500fcc2&prodId=GIC&userGroupName=itsbtrial&tabID=T001&docId=CX2831400031&type=retrieve&contentSet=EBKS&version=1.0 "Racial Segregation in the American South: Jim Crow Laws."] ''Prejudice in the Modern World Reference Library''. Ed. Kelly Rudd, Richard Hanes, and Sarah Hermsen. Vol. 2. Detroit: UXL, 2007. 333-357. ''Global Issues In Context''. Web. 19 Oct. 2013. </ref>These laws, which were most prevalent in the South but also extended into the Southwest and Midwest, segregated blacks and whites in all aspects of public life, including attendance of public schools. <ref name="National Parks Service">{{cite web|title=Jim Crow Laws|url=http://www.nps.gov/malu/forteachers/jim_crow_laws.htm|publisher=National Parks Service|accessdate=1 November 2013}}</ref> Jim Crow laws did not exclusively apply to the segregation of whites and blacks; in Texas, for instance, Mexican-Americans, along with blacks, were prohibited from sharing schools, restaurants, churches, and other public spaces with whites.<ref name=TEXAS>{{cite journal|last=De León|first=Arnoldo|coauthors=Robert A. Calvert|title=Segregation|journal=Handbook of Texas Online|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pks01|accessdate=1 November 2013}}</ref>


The constitutionality of Jim Crow laws was upheld in the Supreme Court’s decision in ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'', which ruled that separate facilities for blacks and whites were permissible provided that the facilities were of equal quality.<ref name=Rudd />This decision was subsequently overturned in 1954, when the Supreme Court ruling in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' ended ''de jure'' segregation in the United States.<ref name=Orfield2001>Orfield, Gary. [http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/schools-more-separate-consequences-of-a-decade-of-resegregation/orfield-schools-more-separate-2001.pdf "Schools More Separate: Consequences of a Decade of Resegregation."] ''Harvard Civil Rights Project''. (2001). (accessed September 24, 2013)</ref> In the decade following ''Brown'', the South resisted enforcement of the Court’s decision.<ref name=Orfield2001 /> States and school districts did little to reduce segregation, and schools remained almost completely segregated until 1968.<ref name=Reardonowens>{{cite web|title=60 Years After Brown: Trends and Consequences of School Segregation|url=https://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/reardon%20owens%20ARS%20segregation%20oct2013.pdf|publisher=Stanford University|author=Sean Reardon|coauthors=Anne Owens|month=October|year=2013}}</ref>Desegregation efforts reached their peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a period in which the South transitioned from complete segregation to being the nation's most integrated region.<ref name=Orfield2001 />
The constitutionality of Jim Crow laws was upheld in the Supreme Court’s decision in ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'', which ruled that separate facilities for blacks and whites were permissible provided that the facilities were of equal quality.<ref name=Rudd />This decision was subsequently overturned in 1954, when the Supreme Court ruling in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' ended ''de jure'' segregation in the United States.<ref name=Orfield2001>Orfield, Gary. [http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/schools-more-separate-consequences-of-a-decade-of-resegregation/orfield-schools-more-separate-2001.pdf "Schools More Separate: Consequences of a Decade of Resegregation."] ''Harvard Civil Rights Project''. (2001). (accessed September 24, 2013)</ref> In the decade following ''Brown'', the South resisted enforcement of the Court’s decision.<ref name=Orfield2001 /> States and school districts did little to reduce segregation, and schools remained almost completely segregated until 1968.<ref name=Reardonowens>{{cite web|title=60 Years After Brown: Trends and Consequences of School Segregation|url=https://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/reardon%20owens%20ARS%20segregation%20oct2013.pdf|publisher=Stanford University|author=Sean Reardon|coauthors=Anne Owens|month=October|year=2013}}</ref>Desegregation efforts reached their peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a period in which the South transitioned from complete segregation to being the nation's most integrated region.<ref name=Orfield2001 />

Revision as of 04:09, 1 November 2013

School segregation in the United States began in its de jure form with the passage of Jim Crow laws in the American South. Contemporary school segregation exists as a de facto phenomenon.[1] It is influenced by patterns of residential segregation, school choice programs, and Supreme Court rulings regarding previous school desegregation efforts.

History

Jim Crow laws formalized school segregation in the United States, 1877-1954

The formal segregation of blacks and whites in the United States began with the passage of Jim Crow laws following the end of the Reconstruction Era in 1877.[2]These laws, which were most prevalent in the South but also extended into the Southwest and Midwest, segregated blacks and whites in all aspects of public life, including attendance of public schools. [3] Jim Crow laws did not exclusively apply to the segregation of whites and blacks; in Texas, for instance, Mexican-Americans, along with blacks, were prohibited from sharing schools, restaurants, churches, and other public spaces with whites.[4]

The constitutionality of Jim Crow laws was upheld in the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, which ruled that separate facilities for blacks and whites were permissible provided that the facilities were of equal quality.[2]This decision was subsequently overturned in 1954, when the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education ended de jure segregation in the United States.[5] In the decade following Brown, the South resisted enforcement of the Court’s decision.[5] States and school districts did little to reduce segregation, and schools remained almost completely segregated until 1968.[6]Desegregation efforts reached their peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a period in which the South transitioned from complete segregation to being the nation's most integrated region.[5]

Contemporary segregation

Measurements and definitions

Segregation can be defined in terms of two different measures: racial isolation (or exposure), and racial unevenness (or imbalance). Measures of exposure define segregation according to the proportion of various races and ethnicities present in a school.[6]According to this measure, a black student attending a school with a very high proportion of other blacks students would be considered “racially isolated.”

Critics of measures of exposure point out that they are highly sensitive to changes in the demographic composition of schools.[7]As the share of "minority" students in an area increases, they will necessarily attend schools with smaller proportions of whites students.[8]Some researchers prefer to define segregation according to measures of racial imbalance, or the extent to which racial and ethnic groups are distributed unevenly across schools.[8] Measures of imbalance are independent of the changes in the racial composition of a population.

From 1968-1980, segregation between blacks and whites in schools declined according to measures of both isolation and imbalance.[6] Measures of isolation within school districts show that school integration peaked in the 1980s and then gradually declined over the course of the 1990s.[7] In the 1990s and early 2000s, minority students attended schools with a declining proportion of white students, so that segregation measured as isolation resembled that of the 1960s.[8]There is some disagreement about what to make of trends since the 1980s; while some researchers have presented trends as evidence of “resegregation,” others argue that changing demographics in school districts are responsible for most of the changes in the racial composition of schools.[6]

A 2013 study by Jeremy Fiel found that, “for the most part, compositional changes are to blame for the declining presence of whites in minorities’ schools,” and that racial balance actually increased from 1993 to 2010. The study found that minority students became more isolated and less exposed to whites, but that all students became more evenly distributed across schools.[8]

Another 2013 study found that segregation measured as exposure increased over the previous 25 years due to changing demographics. The study did not, however, find an increase in racial balance; rather, racial unevenness remained stable over that time period.[6]

Researcher Kori Stroub found that the “racial/ethnic resegregation of public schools observed over the 1990s has given way to a period of modest reintegration,” but that segregation between school districts has increased even though within-district segregation is low.[7]It is expected that increasing interdistrict segregation will exacerbate racial isolation.[8]

Sources of contemporary segregation

Residential segregation

A principle source of school segregation is the persistence of residential segregation in American society; residence and school assignment are closely linked due to the widespread tradition of locally controlled schools.[9]

A study conducted by Sean Reardon and John Yun found that from 1990-2000, residential black/white and Hispanic/white segregation declined by a modest amount in the United States, while public school segregation increased slightly during the same time period. Because the two variables moved in opposite directions, changes in residential patterns are not responsible for changes in school segregation trends. Rather, the study determined that in 1990, schools showed less segregation than neighborhoods, indicating that local policies were helping to ameliorate the effects of residential segregation on school composition. By 2000, however, racial composition of schools had become more closely correlated to neighborhood composition indicating that policies no longer redistributed students as evenly as before. [10]

A 2013 study corroborated these findings, showing that the relationship between residential and school segregation became stronger over the decade 2000-2010. In 2000, segregation of blacks in schools was lower than in their neighborhoods; by 2010, the two patterns of segregation were “nearly identical."[9]

Supreme Court rulings

Although the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education set desegregation efforts in motion, subsequent rulings have created serious obstacles to continued integration. Although the court’s 1970 ruling in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education upheld busing as a constitutional means to achieve integration within a school district, the ruling had no effect on the increasing level of segregation between school districts.[11]The court’s ruling in Milliken v. Bradley in 1974 subsequently prohibited interdistrict desegregation by busing. [12]

The 1990 decision in Board of Education of Oklahoma City v. Dowell declared that once schools districts had made a practicable, “good faith” effort to desegregate, they could be declared to have achieved “unitary” status, releasing them from court oversight. [13]The decision allowed schools to end previous desegregation efforts even in cases where a return to segregation was likely.[11] The court’s ruling in Freeman v. Pitts went further, deciding that districts could be released from oversight in “incremental stages," meaning that courts would continue to supervise only those aspects of integration that had not yet been achieved.[12]

A 2012 study determined that “half of all districts ever under court-ordered desegregation [had] been released from court oversight, with most of the releases occurring in the last 20 years.” The study found that segregation levels in school districts did not rise sharply following court dismissal, but rather increased gradually for the next 10 to 12 years. As compared to districts that had never been placed under court supervision, districts that achieved unitary status and were released from court-ordered desegregation witnessed a change in segregation patterns that was 10 times as great. The study concludes that “court-ordered desegregation plans are effective in reducing racial school segregation, but…their effects fade over time in the absence of continued court oversight."[13]

In a pair of rulings in 2007 (Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education), the court’s decision limited schools’ ability to use race as a consideration in school assignment plans. In both cases, the Court struck down school assignment plans designed to ensure that the racial composition of schools roughly reflected the composition of the district as a whole, saying that the plans were not “narrowly tailored” to achieve the stated goal and that race-neutral alternatives had not been given adequate consideration.[14]

School choice

Studies conducted on the relationship between expanded school choice and school segregation shows that in studies comparing the racial/ethnic composition of charter schools to local public schools, researchers generally find that charter schools preserve or intensify existing racial and economic segregation, and/or facilitate white flight from public schools [15]

Studies that compare individual students’ demographic characteristics to the schools they are leaving (public schools) and the schools they are switching to (charter schools) finds that such reports generally demonstrate that students “leave more diverse public schools and enroll in less diverse charter schools.”[15]

Private schools constitute a second important type of school choice. A 2002 study found that private schools continued to contribute to the persistence of school segregation in the South over the course of the ‘90s. Enrollment of whites in private schools increased sharply in the 70s, remained unchanged in the 80s, and then increased again over the course of the 90s. Because the changes over the latter two decades was not substantial, however, researcher Sean Reardon concludes that changes in private school enrollment is not a likely contributor to any changes in schools segregation patterns during that time. [10]

Implications of segregation

Educational outcomes

The level of racial segregation in schools has important implications for the educational outcomes of minority students. Desegregation efforts of the 1970s and 1980s led to substantial academic gains for black students; as integration increased, blacks' educational attainment increased while that of whites remained largely unchanged.[13] Historically, greater access to schools with higher enrollments of white students helped "reduce blacks’ high school dropout rate, reduce the black-white test score gap…and improve outcomes for black in areas such as earnings, health, and incarceration.”[8]

Nationwide, minority students continue to be concentrated high-poverty, low-achieving schools, while white students are more likely to attend high-achieving, more affluent schools.[8] Resources such as funds and high-quality teachers attach unequally to schools according to racial and socioeconomic composition. Schools with high proportions of minority enrollment are often characterized by "less experienced and less qualified teachers, high levels of teacher turnover, less successful peer groups and inadequate facilities and learning materials."[16] These schools also tend to have less challenging curricula and fewer offerings of Advanced Placement courses.

Research shows that access to resources is not the only factor determining education outcomes; the racial composition of schools itself can have a direct, causational effect independent of the level of other resources. A 2009 study determined that attending school with a high proportion of black students negatively affected black academic achievement, even after controlling for school quality, differences in ability, and family background. The effect of racial composition on white achievement was insignificant.[17]

Social wellbeing

Integrated schools have large social benefits for minority and majority groups alike. Studies show that students who attend integrated schools are more likely to live in diverse neighborhoods as adults than those students who attended more segregated schools. Integrated schools also reduce stereotypes and prevent the formation of prejudices.[9]

Gary Orfield of the UCLA Civil Rights Project, who has researched school segregation in the United States for over for four decades, argues that integrated and diverse schools are essential for preparing U.S. students to live in an increasingly multiracial society. Integrated schools, he says, help students embrace a variety of perspectives, make them less likely to accept stereotypes, lead them to aspire to loftier career paths, and are associated with high levels of civic and community involvement.[16]

See also

United States
Other countries

References

  1. ^ Logan, John (2012). ""The Geography of Inequality: Why Separate Means Unequal in American Public Schools". Sociology of Education. 85 (3): 287–301. Retrieved 25 October 2013. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  2. ^ a b "Racial Segregation in the American South: Jim Crow Laws." Prejudice in the Modern World Reference Library. Ed. Kelly Rudd, Richard Hanes, and Sarah Hermsen. Vol. 2. Detroit: UXL, 2007. 333-357. Global Issues In Context. Web. 19 Oct. 2013.
  3. ^ "Jim Crow Laws". National Parks Service. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
  4. ^ De León, Arnoldo. "Segregation". Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 1 November 2013. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ a b c Orfield, Gary. "Schools More Separate: Consequences of a Decade of Resegregation." Harvard Civil Rights Project. (2001). (accessed September 24, 2013)
  6. ^ a b c d e Sean Reardon (2013). "60 Years After Brown: Trends and Consequences of School Segregation" (PDF). Stanford University. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  7. ^ a b c Stroub, Kori J., and Meredith P. Richards. "From Resegregation to Reintegration: Trends in the Racial/Ethnic Segregation of Metropolitan Public School." American Educational Research Journal. no. 3 (2013): 497-531. (accessed September 24, 2013)
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Fiel, Jeremy E. "Decomposing School Resegregation: Social Closure, Racial Imbalance, and Racial Isolation." American Sociological Review. no. 5 (2013): 1-21. (accessed September 24, 2013)
  9. ^ a b c Frankenberg, Erica."The Role of Residential Segregation in Contemporary School Segregation" (PDF). Retrieved 28 October 2013. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); line feed character in |title= at position 60 (help) Education and Urban Society. no. 5 (2013): 1-23. (accessed September 24, 2013)
  10. ^ a b Reardon, Sean (2002). "Integrating neighborhoods, segregating schools: The retreat from school desegregation in the South, 1990-2000" (PDF). North Carolina Law Review. 81. Retrieved 19 October 2013. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ a b Chemerinsky, Erwin. "The Segregation and Resegregation of American Public Education: The Court's Role." North Carolina Law Review. (2003): 1598-1622. (accessed September 24, 2013).
  12. ^ a b Dorsey, Dana N. "Segregation 2.0: The New Generation of School Segregation in the 21st Century." Education and Urban Society. no. 5 (2013). (accessed September 24, 2013)
  13. ^ a b c Reardon, Sean F., Elena T. Grewal, Demetra Kalogrides, and Erica Greenberg. "Brown Fades: The End of Court-Ordered School Desegregation and the Resegregation of American Public Schools." Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. no. 4 (2012): 876-904. (accessed September 24, 2013)
  14. ^ Tefera, Adai (2011). "Integrating Suburban Schools: How to Benefit from Growing Diversity and Avoid Segregation" (PDF). UCLA Civil Right Project. Retrieved 19 October 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ a b Miron, G., Urschel, J. L., Mathis, W, J., & Tornquist, E. “Schools without Diversity: Education Management Organizations, Charter Schools and the Demographic Stratification of the American School System.” (2010). Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. (accessed September 24, 2013)
  16. ^ a b Orfield, Gary (2012). "E Pluribus...Separation: Deepening Double Segregation for More Students" (PDF). The Civil Rights Project. Retrieved 1 November 2013. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  17. ^ Hanushek, Eric A. (2009). "New Evidence about Brown v. Board of Education: The Complex Effects of School Racial Composition on Achievement". Journal of Labor Economics (3): 349–383. Retrieved 1 November 2013. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)


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