1954 was a landmark year — the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education changed the landscape of education in the United States, establishing racial segregation in public schools in 17 states as unconstitutional.
The ruling that helped set off the civil rights revolution owes its foundation to Brown’s call for change. Today, schools in Southern states are less segregated than before the decision. However, the journey to attaining the goal is still a long way off.
It has been 70 years since the decision, how much has changed?
There has been an increase in school segregation by 64% since 1988 in the 100 largest school districts, especially those with a large number of Black students. Moreover, the data shows that segregation by economic status has increased by about 50% since 1991. Segregation between Black and white students has increased by 25% since 1991 in 533 school districts serving at least 2,500 Black students
A report by Stanford University and the University of Southern California says the expansion of charter schools is a key reason behind this trend.
“School segregation levels are not at pre-Brown levels, but they are high and have been rising steadily since the late 1980s,” said Sean Reardon, a professor of Poverty and Inequality in Education at Stanford Graduate School of Education and faculty director of the Educational Opportunity Project. “In most large districts, school segregation has increased while residential segregation and racial economic inequality have declined, and our findings indicate that policy choices – not demographic changes – are driving the increase.”
Segregation data: by the numbers
According to a study, The Unfinished Battle for Integration in a Multiracial America – from Brown to Now, by UCLA’s The Civil Rights Project:
- Schools have become less white and more multiracial. The enrollment of white students decreased from 80.7% in 1968 to 45.3% in 2021, while Latino enrollment went up by 4.7% from 1968 to 28.2% in 2021. However, Black student enrollment has remained stable, making up a sixth of the total.
- The schools that were “intensely segregated” (0 to 10% whites) tripled, rising from 7.4% to 20%. This dramatic increase shows the growing inequality in American public schools, as intensely segregated schools have high poverty levels, with 78% of students being poor.
- In 2021, Black and Latino students were the most highly segregated, the report says. Black and Latino students attended around 75% nonwhite schools, while U.S. schools were 45% white.
- Desegregation efforts of Southern Black students grew the most in the 1960s and 70s, as almost all such schools were segregated before Brown. Black students in white-majority schools in the South peaked at 43% in the 1980s. This declined to around 16% by 2021 post the Supreme Court’s direction to end desegregation plans in 1991.
- The data shows that U.S. central city schools are the most segregated, with Black students attending 84% nonwhite schools and Latino students attending 83% nonwhite schools. In rural schools, on the other hand, white students comprise a higher population but have higher contact with Black and Latino students. Suburbs of large metros have high levels of diversity as well as segregation.
- Charter schools are more segregated than public schools, while magnet schools are significantly less segregated than charters.
Impact on Black and brown students
Currently, 40% of Black and Hispanic students attend schools, with 90% of students of color.
The report says the return to segregation impacts Black and brown students, as these schools face financial and social challenges that white schools are exempt from. Such schools serving non-white students are located in low-income areas, relying on property taxes for funding and, thus, receive less money. Quantifiably, $23 billion less than districts serving an equal number of white students, according to an Edbuild report.
“The racial and economic segregation created by gerrymandered school district boundaries continues to divide our communities and rob our nation’s children of fundamental freedoms and opportunity,” the report states. “Good schools can’t solve structural inequality on their own, but neither can it be solved without them…And even after Brown v Board, even after decades of school finance litigation meant to equalize the playing field, and even after accounting for wealth disparities, the wrenching reality endures—the United States still invests significantly more money to educate children in white communities.”
Moreover, the average enrollment in white districts is just over 1,500 students, which is half the national average, while non-white districts serve more than thrice that number, ie. 10,000 students.
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Non-white schools also tend to face a lack of resources, teacher shortages, higher student-to-school counselor ratios, and fewer AP class options.
“Segregation appears to shape educational outcomes because it concentrates Black and Hispanic students in higher-poverty schools, which results in unequal learning opportunities,” said Reardon.
Racial segregation in Houston ISD
Houston ISD schools have become more segregated in the last 30 years, according to the analysis:
- HISD’s segregation rating of 0.47 for Black and white students, 0.34 for Hispanic and white students, 0.28 for Asian and white students, and overall, a white and non-white segregation rating of 0.23. The Education Opportunity Project at Stanford University compares the proportions of white students in the average non-white school, measuring the segregation levels on a normalized exposure index that ranges from 0 to 1. While a value of 0 indicates no segregation, 1 implies complete segregation.
- Texas is one of the states with the largest growth in intensely segregated schools, ie. schools with 90%-100% non-white students. The percentage of these schools increased from 15% in 1988 to 36.4% in 2021.
Addressing segregation
In a personal essay titled “4 Ways Teachers in Segregated Classrooms Can Desegregate Their Students’ Learning,” the founding principal of Maya Angelou Public Charter School in Washington, DC, Nataki Gregory argued that “culturally relevant” teaching practices, training of teachers and the strategic use of technology can help schools overcome challenges posed by neighborhoods onto desegregation. This could be interpreted as a fitting solution to those who believe creating desegregated schools in segregated communities is difficult.
Here are some of the solutions she outlined in her article:
- Coaching teachers or establishing a culture with norms like giving and receiving feedback, supporting thinking, and engaging in conversations.
- Self-exploration, or encouraging students in a high school government class to hold an in-school election of local or national candidates, where students can research candidates’ and party positions, and engage in debates.
- Using technology to connect with students across a city and the country. For example, for a lesson on the arrival of Europeans to the Americas in the 1400s, teachers can compare how these events are taught in the U.S., in Canada and across the Caribbean by connecting with other students across North America over Skype or other apps.
“Brown v. Board laid the foundation for creating the types of schools that would drive our nation in the direction of success. And our work now requires even more from us than that case did,” Gregory said.
