Nearly seventy years have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, but the Court’s declared goal of inclusive education has yet to be achieved. Hmm.
American society continues to be racially and ethnically diverse. However, many of her public K-12 schools across the country are poorly integrated and instead are predominantly attended by students of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
As an educational sociologist, I fear that the country has effectively decided that continuing to pursue Brown’s goals is simply not worthwhile. I fear it portends a return to the days of the Plessey v. Ferguson ruling in 1998. was set as a priority for
Brown’s decision was based on the denial of that idea and the realization that “separate but equal” was never achieved.
historic push
In many ways, it is astonishing to declare the ideal of integrated schooling lost. Integration was so important in 1957 that Republican President Dwight D. sent to Little Rock to make sure nine black students were safe as they entered the city’s Central High School.
Despite federal intervention, many communities across the United States experienced considerable conflict and even bloodshed in the 1960s and 1970s. Many white citizens actively and violently opposed school consolidation. This often took the form of court orders to bus black students to schools in white-dominated areas.
Despite opposition, many Americans worked incredibly hard to make integration happen. The benefits are clear. Many American children have enhanced educational opportunities and improved academic success as a result of these efforts.
Separated if not separated
However, in 2018-2019, the most recent school year for which data are available, 42% of black students attended a predominantly black school and 56% of Hispanic students attended a Hispanic school. Did. Even more striking, 79% of white students in America attended a majority-white school during the same period.
These statistics actually point to the existence of a racially segregated education system. But these statistics on race do not show how prevalent segregation by socioeconomic status is in most urban schools across America. Most children are poor and most likely to attend schools where the resources available to serve them are inadequate.
Since 2001, education policymakers have made bold promises to close the so-called “racial achievement gap.” But they have largely ignored the fact that nationally poor children of color are the most likely to attend school.
AP Photo/Jim Brudeer
Choice of housing and school
Several factors help explain the degree of racial and class segregation and educational inequality currently prevalent in America. First and foremost, many communities across the United States continue to be characterized by a high degree of racial and socioeconomic segregation. found that neighborhood segregation by itself could not explain the current pattern of school segregation. The study identified several urban and suburban communities that were far more isolated than the areas in which the schools were located.
Policies that allow parents to choose which public school in their district their children attend do little to change these trends and may, in fact, contribute to the problem. Several studies have shown that public charter schools tend to be more racist than traditional public schools.
Moreover, in most major US cities, wealthy residents are more likely to enroll their children in private than public schools. This includes wealthy parents of many people of color. They often choose to enroll their children in predominantly white private schools in search of a better education, even when the children experience race-related microaggressions and marginalization. .
Over the past two decades, cities such as Boston, New York, Denver, Washington, DC, and Seattle have seen their wealthy white populations grow, yet the overwhelming majority of public school students in these cities are low-income blacks and blacks. I come from a Hispanic family. This kind of racial imbalance is becoming more and more the norm.
AP Photo/Damien Devarganes
the integration succeeds
Where the poorest and most vulnerable children are concentrated in a particular school, there is a greater opportunity for people in educational opportunities through the integration that Brown demands, or by pursuing the “separate but equal” that Plessy demands. Achieving racial equality is even more difficult.
There are good reasons to worry. For decades, there has been consistent evidence that when schools serve a disproportionate number of needy children, students are less likely to perform better academically.
Evidence also shows that black and Hispanic children tend to outperform their peers when they attend racially integrated schools. Students who participated in the Metco program, a voluntary desegregation initiative that allows children to be bused to wealthy suburban schools, outnumbered those who remained in segregated schools in Boston. also performed well. The study explored whether it was due to the superior resources available in predominantly white suburban schools, or the fact that there were enough positive parents to enroll them in suburban schools. is not shown. Both factors may be involved.
A 2018 study from UCLA found that all schools producing a significant number of eligible black students for admission to the University of California are racially integrated. Unfortunately, the study also found that most black students in Los Angeles do not attend comprehensive school.
However, this study also found one notable exception. King/Drew Health Sciences Magnet High School of Medicine and Science in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. The school, which caters almost exclusively to black and Hispanic students, sends more black students to the University of California than any other high school in California.
At King/Drew, students receive a rigorous and comprehensive education that includes many honors and advanced placement courses. These opportunities are commonplace in many wealthy suburban schools, but rare in urban public schools.
The scarcity of schools like King/Drew means that racially segregated schools are rarely equal because they are resource-rich and serve low-income or majority-minority students. It reminds me that there is no When Thurgood Marshall and his NAACP took up Brown’s case, they knew that funding for education generally follows white students.
That was true in 1954, and it’s still mostly true today. A recent study found that a non-white school district in the United States receives US$23 billion less funding than a predominantly white school, despite serving the same number of students. understood.
For this reason, as we mark the 68th anniversary of the Brown decision, I believe it is important to remember why and how civil rights and educational opportunities are deeply intertwined. Despite its flaws and limitations, efforts to racially integrate the nation’s schools remain important given that the United States is becoming a pluralistic and diverse nation. It also plays a central role in the ongoing pursuit of
