Segregation in American schools was outlawed 62 years ago, but it’s on the rise
Decades of research have shown that segregation negatively impacts students, with consequences accumulating throughout their lives.
And yet segregation in US schools is on the rise, according to a damningnew report from the Government Accountability Office.
In 2000-2001, 9% of all public schools (kindergarten to 12th grade) had high proportions of poor and black or Hispanic students. By 2013-2014, that figure was 16%, the report showed.
These schools are disproportionately poor and non-white: 75% to 100% of the students were black or Hispanic and eligible for free or reduced-price lunch—a widely-used indicator of poverty.
Schools with high levels of poverty offer fewer math, science, and college prep courses. While 71% of better-off schools had calculus classes, and 80% offered physics, only 29% of poorer ones had calculus and 55% offered physics. High-poverty schools also had higher rates of students held back in 9th grade, suspended or expelled.
The GAO reviewed nationally representative studies from 2004 to 2014 and found that:
“schools with higher concentrations of students from low-income families were generally associated with worse outcomes, and schools with higher concentrations of students from middle- and high-income families were generally associated with better outcomes.”
In one study, when the average family income of a school increased, the academic achievement and attainment of students of all racial backgrounds improved.
In 2014, a trio of lawmakers asked the GAO to examine racial and socioeconomic isolation in K-12 public schools, and what impact that had on educational equity. Rep. Bobby Scott, one of the members of Congress who requested the report, responded in a statement:Segregation in American schools was outlawed 62 years ago, but it’s on the rise — Quartz:
