Nine of the 11 states with the highest rates of school segregation are in the Northeast and Western parts of the U.S., according to new research from The Segregation Tracking Project.
The research used data from the 2023-2024 school year on every school district in the country, and examined economic and racial indicators such as percentages of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
Significance
The study found that a pattern of “poverty packing” school districts was most common in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Illinois, and Ohio. According to the study, this practice of putting students that come from households with families that are lower income in concentrated school districts and areas is uniquely harmful. Students that grow up in these school environments are more likely to have unmet health needs or be over-exposed to trauma.
Overlooked angle
The South is historically seen as a place of deep-seated economic, racial, and educational inequities. While this is historically true, this research highlights that racist practices and segregation remain a systemic problem across the entire nation, not just in the South.
Who this impacts
Researchers ranked states on racial segregation by observing public school demographics. The focus was on measuring the amount of White, Black, Latino, and Native students represented in each of the school districts. Data on Asian students was not included.
Researchers found that New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio had the most racial segregation between school districts.
The power structure
Political and legal challenges against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the public school system make addressing school segregation across the country increasingly difficult. The Trump administration has recently been using its Department of Justice to legally attack and threaten funding to schools with equitable initiatives — moves aimed at maintaining a socioeconomic and racial caste system.
What experts say
“In approaching this problem, we cannot turn the clock back. … We must consider public education in the light of its full development and its present place in American life throughout the Nation,” U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren said in the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Chief Justice Warren believed that in order to change the past, we needed to address the problem of school segregation.
