At the beginning of the twenty-first century, American
public schools are now twelve years into the process of continuous resegregation.
The desegregation of black students, which increased continuously from
the 1950s to the late 1980s, has now receded to levels not seen in three
decades. Although the South remains the nation's most integrated region
for both blacks and whites, it is the region that is most rapidly going
backwards as the courts terminate many major and successful desegregation
orders.
This report describes patterns of racial enrollment and
segregation in American public schools at the national, regional, state,
and district levels for students of all racial groups. Our analysis of
the status of school desegregation in 2000 uses the
NCES
Common Core of Data for 2000-01, which contains data submitted by virtually
all U.S. schools to the Department of Education. Additionally, this report
examines trends in desegregation and, now, resegregation over the last
one-third century.
Desegregation has been a substantial accomplishment and
is linked to important gains for both minority and white students. Just
as more and more convincing evidence of those gains is accumulating, school
systems are actually being ordered to end successful desegregation plans
they would prefer to continue. This is not driven by public opinion, which
has become more supportive of desegregated schools (most of which have
been achieved through choice mechanisms in the past two decades). The persisting
high levels of residential segregation for Blacks and increasing levels
for Latinos in the 2000 Census indicate that desegregated education will
not happen without plans that make it happen. We recommend a set of policies
that would slow and eventually reverse the trends reported here.
Race matters strongly and segregation is a failed educational
policy. Any policy framework must explicitly recognize the importance of
integrated education not only as a basic education goal but also as a compelling
societal interest. Specific policies to address this include: