In the News: The resegregation of Chicago-area schools
By: Cassandra West / June 29, 2012
An analysis by WBEZ shows a jump in the last 20 years in the number of highly segregated black and Latino schools, while white students in suburban Chicago are more likely to attend a school that is racially diverse.
WBEZ goes deeper into segregation in Chicago-area schools as part of its "Race Out Loud" series. Here's a map plotting public school integration, 20 years ago and today.
WBEZ interviews a graduating high school senior who's only attended an"extremely segregated" school, where more than 90 percent of students come from their same race.
The U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights says it wants to remind school districts that they can use race in their admissions policies. That came in
Greater segregation for region's black, Latino students
But white suburban schools see big increase in diversity.
June 27, 2012
Linda Lutton and Becky Vevea
(WBEZ/Bill Healy)
For white students in suburban Chicago, school has become a much more diverse place in the last 20 years. But the region has seen a jump during that time in the number of highly segregated black and Latino schools, a new WBEZ analysis shows.
Half of all African American students in the region still go to school in what sociologists would consider “extreme segregation, " in schools where 90 percent or more of students are African American. Twenty-two percent of all Latino public school students in the eight-county region go to highly segregated schools, a proportion that is growing in the city and the suburbs.
WBEZ compared school demographics from 20 years ago and today for our series Race: Out Loud. We examined schools in Chicago, suburban Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.
“There were a lot of opportunities for integration and making progress, and nothing much was done,” says Gary Orfield, a lead researcher nationally on school segregation and a proponent of racial integration.
Open the Popup Window
All summer, WBEZ and vocalo will be talking about race—out loud, and on the air, in frank conversations and stories, and in lively public events. We’re asking what it would sound like if people said what they really think and feel about race and ethnicity. What if they really talked about how it shapes them, their lives, and attitudes? What would we hear?
He says school desegregation is no longer a priority in education.
“We just test more and we put more pressure on the schools that are segregated and everything will be fine. It’s a lie.”
Chicago sees deepening segregation
WBEZ’s analysis shows a stark resegregation of the city’s schools:
►The number of Chicago public schools that are 90 percent or