2003 - Increasing Diversity and Persistent Segregation: Challenges of Educating Minority and Immigrant Children in Urban America

Attribution: Zhou, Min, & Logan, John R.
Researchers: John R. LoganMin Zhou
University Affiliation: UCLA
Email: mzhou@soc.ucla.edu
Research Question:
An overview of America's racial and ethnic composition from the 2000 Census and the implications of increasing diversity for urban public schools.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Nova Publishers
Journal Entry: Chapter 8: "The End of Desegregation?" pp. 177-194
Year: 2003
Findings:
  • Levels of racial segregation have remained more or less the same over the last twenty years despite growing racial and intra-group diversity in the US.
  • As of 2000, the typical American Black lived in a neighborhood that was 54% Black and 33.2% White.
  • The typical Hispanic lived in a neighborhood that was 42.1% Hispanic and 40% White.
  • The typical Asian lived in a neighborhood that was 19.3% Asian and 58% White.
  • Black-White segregation remains very high in metropolitan areas.
  • White, Black, and Hispanic children on average all attend schools where the members of their groups are in the majority.
  • The average White child attends a school that is 78% White, 9% Black, 8% Hispanic, and 3% Asian.
  • The average Black child attends a school that is 57% Black.
  • The average Hispanic child attends a school that is 57% Hispanic.
  • The average Asian child attends a school that is 19% Asian.
  • Each minority group’s exposure to White children is declining.
  • White students are in schools that are 30% poor.
  • Black students are in schools that are 66% poor.
  • Asian students are in schools that are 43% poor.
  • Hispanics and Asians, especially children, experience lower levels of residential segregation and social isolation than do Blacks, but all levels remain too high.
  • If public policy is not oriented toward reducing segregation, it must at least be responsive to the reality that minority neighborhoods are not only separate but also unequal.
Keywords: DiversityDropoutsRacial CompositionSegregationRegions: NationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Descriptive StatisticsAnalysis Methods: Descriptive Statistics Sampling Frame:Population
Sampling Types: PopulationAnalysis Units: IndividualData Types: Quantitative-Cross Sectional
Data Description:
  • Uses the 2000 United States Census to address three relevant questions: 1) What is the composition of the population at the beginning of the 21st century? 2) How diverse and segregated is America’s child population and how does diversity and segregation create new issues of urban education? 3) What challenges do children and families face in the era of dramatic demographic changes, and how do neighborhoods matter in helping children do well in school?
  • DV: High school dropout rate, college attendance
  • IV: Ethnicity
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts