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

  • 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.