New Report: Why Segregation Matters: Poverty & Educational Inequality

Posted by on April 1, 2005

[posted from Public Education Network newsblast]

WHY SEGREGATION MATTERS: POVERTY & EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITY
The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University has released a new study that finds more and more students across the nation are segregated by race, poverty, and educational opportunity. The study also finds that the high dropout problem is concentrated in heavily minority high schools in large cities. Among major findings were that the most isolated groups were white students in poverty in the Midwest, black students in extreme poverty in the South, and Latino students in extreme poverty in the West. The study found that districts with the lowest graduation rates are central city systems where more than 90 percent of black and Latino students attend majority minority schools. The study also explored the correlation of socioeconomics in segregation. More than 50 percent of white students attend schools where less than 30 percent of the students are poor in relation to only 20 percent of black and Latino students. Additionally, only 1 percent of white students attend extreme poverty schools where 90-100 percent of students are poor, whereas 12 percent of black and Latino students attend these schools. Numerous studies have found that high poverty schools tend to have a less stable and less qualified teaching staff.
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/deseg/deseg05.php