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

  • 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.