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Segregation in US Schools On the Rise
February 18, 2008
If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
Public schools in the United States are becoming more racially segregated and the trend is likely to accelerate because of a Supreme Court decision in June, according to a new report by the Civil Rights Project of the University of California in Los Angeles. An article in the Washington Post (August 29, 2007; www.washingtonpost.com)...

"This rise in segregation threatens the quality of education received by non-white students, who now make up 43 percent of the total U.S. student body. Many segregated schools struggle to attract highly qualified teachers and administrators, do not prepare students well for college and fail to graduate more than half their students. The resegregation trend damages the prospects for non-white students and will likely have a negative effect on the U.S. economy...

"Part of the reason for the resegregation is the rapidly expanding number of black and Latino children and a corresponding fall in the number of white children, it said. Contrary to popular belief, the surge in the number of minority children in public schools was not mainly caused by a flight of white students into private schools. Instead, the 'post-baby boom' generation of white Americans are having smaller family sizes. Latinos are the fastest growing minority in U.S. schools and for them segregation is often more profound than it was when the phenomenon was first measured 40 years ago, according to the report, 'Historic Reversals, Accelerating Resegregation and the need for new Integration Strategies)'  The report states, 'Too often Latino students face triple segregation by race, class and language.'"



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Comments (2)

Displaying All 2 Comments
Peggy Liuzzi · February 18, 2008
Child Care Solutions
Syracuse, NY, United States


In my area, upstate NY, it seems that child care programs are also more segregated, racially and economically, than they were 35 years ago when I first entered the field. It's an unintended outcome due to a number of factors; neighborhood geography, the child care subsidy system, and parent perception. It does have an impact on resources. The subsidy system, because of reimbursement policies, has the affect of holding compensation down and making hiring and retaining qualified staff very difficult. I think this is a concern. Like many urban areas, our city schools struggle with falling graduation rates as the percentage of students who are low-income, of color and who speak English as a second language increases. The quality of pre-school experiences is an important part of the solution to this later educational achievement gap. Despite a significant investment by NY State in Pre-Kindergarten, child care centers that serve low-income children, including during the critical infant-toddler period of development, struggle for financial viability.

Janet Baxter · February 18, 2008
Kilgore, TX, United States


I think we must always beware of drawing conclusions from percentages and reports by specical interest groups or in this case perhaps a university study that is looking for a specific "problem". Indeed, Latino/Hispanic students are a growing number in schools and communities. This article, itself states that this "segregation" is not necessarily caused by "white students" leaving schools, but rather the rise in numbers of "non-white students." How is the increase in one group, by simply attending school where they live, segregation?

I would also argue that the article's statement that "Many segregated schools struggle to attract highly qualified teachers and administrators,..." is a slap in the face to those educators who are working in these "segregated schools". This would seem to be a blanket assumption that no one who is highly qualified would ever choose to teach in a "segregated" school. By what criteria did this "study/report" determine what or who is a highly qualified educator?



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