1997 - Deepening Segregation in American Public Schools: A Special Report from the Harvard Project on School Desegregation

Attribution: Orfield, Gary, Bachmeier, Mark D., James, David R., & Eitle, Tamela
Researchers: David R. JamesGary OrfieldMark D. BachmeierTamela Eitle
University Affiliation: UCLA
Email: orfield@gseis.ucla.edu
Research Question:
Report on school segregation changes after the 1990s.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Equity and Excellence in Education
Journal Entry: Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 5-24
Year: 1997
Findings:
  • Segregation is increasing for Blacks, particularly in the states that once mandated racial separation. For Latinos, an even more severe level of segregation is intensifying across the nation.
  • The authors find that there is a national increase in segregation.
  • Segregation is increasing for Black students and Latino students. Latinos are slightly more segregated than Blacks.
  • Supreme Court decisions from 1991-1995 have reversed desegregation orders.
  • The result is a return toward segregation levels that were seen in 1970. From the 1950s through the late 1980s there was a decline in the segregation of Black students.
  • The South and the Border state regions saw a shift from state-mandated segregation to become the least segregated region in the US.
  • This gain is being lost-segregation in these regions increased between 1991 and 1994 by all measures. The data suggest that segregation will intensify as the suburbs become more diverse.
Keywords: DesegregationHispanicsLatinosResegregationSegregationRegions: NationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: SurveyAnalysis Methods: Descriptive Statistics Sampling Frame:National
Sampling Types: RandomAnalysis Units: Geographical AreaSchoolSchool DistrictStateData Types: Quantitative-Cross Sectional
Data Description:
  • The data are primarily from the 1994-1995 NCES Common Core of Data and from the U.S. Department of Ed Office for Civil Rights.
  • The data analyzed are from 78,605 schools in 14,283 districts in 47 states and Washington, DC.
  • Student enrollment statistics by race are reported to examine trends in racial segregation in public school education.
  • DV: Likelihood of school segregation
  • IV: Region, race, year, poverty
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts