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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/educ...2744636,00.html
Thomas Hargrove, Scripps Howard News Service, Rocky Mountain News, Mar. 20
America's public schools, after decades of struggle to achieve racial and ethnic balance, are tilting back toward separate institutions.
And children of color today are much more likely to be in mostly minority schools than they were a decade ago.
With little fanfare and scant publicity, federal judges and school policy-makers have abandoned hundreds of desegregation plans written in the 1960s and 1970s.
The public
largely is unaware of the change, according to a recent national poll conducted by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University. Sixty percent of Americans say it is very important that students
of
different races attend classes together."
"� Most incorrectly assume that their local schools are integrated.
A study of U.S. Department of Education records conducted by Scripps Howard News Service found that racial isolationthe percentage of children of color enrolled in schools that are 90 percent minority or morehas risen in at least 36 states between 1991 and 2001, the most recent year for which reliable data are available.
In all, 6.6 million of the nation's 18.9 million black, Hispanic, Asian and American Indian children in 2001 were enrolled in public schools that were 90 percent minority or more. That means 35 percent are racially isolated in their classrooms.
These patterns are not the result of current illegal practices by school districts, said Rod Paige, U.S. secret
ary of education. The reasons are complex, and sociologists and demographers can help us figure it out. Some of the causes involve housing patterns and economic factors.
But several prominent e
xperts on r
ace in public schools a
re quick to blame the nation's political and judicial leaders for making a quiet policy change.
We're in a major process of re-segregation, said Gary Orfield, co-director of Harvard University's Civil Rights Project, which tracks school segregation patterns by school districts. There is a cowardice about this issue. People are afraid to talk about it because it is so sensitive. So we are slipping back into separate-but-equal schools, a policy we tried once without success.
The Scripps Howard study found that students of color were most likely to be enrolled in one-color schools in the states of Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New York and North Dakota. They were least likely to be racially isolated in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, New Hampshire and West Virginia, a
ll states with small minority populations.
The study looked at records from 67,577 public schools, comparing their racial enrollment reports from 1991 and 2001. Of these, 414 schools had most
ly minority student
populatio
ns in 1991 that became mostly white a decade later while 5,506 schools shifted from majority white student populations to mostly minorities.
Put another way, the reshuffling of student populations has been so profound in America that the racial character has entirely changed for one out of every 11 public schools during the 10-year period of the study.
Folks should be screaming from the rooftops about this issue. We have not achieved what we set out to achieve, said Elise Boddie, director of school desegregation cases for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in New York City.
The Scripps Howard study also found that 10 states experienced double-digit increases in the percentage of children of color going to overwhelmingly minority schools in the last decade. They are:
Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
Ohio schools have undergone the fastest statewide transformation, the study f
ound. The numbers of black,
Hispanic,
Asian and American Indian students enrolled in overwhelmingly minority schools in Ohio rose from 9 percent in 1991 to 31 percent a decade later.
Paige discounts the amount of re-segregation occurring, saying that there are some examples of declining classroom diversity.
"'m not sure if that is the general description of the nation, he said. " don't want to come off saying that diversity isn't of value. The president has spoken on this rather clearly. Diversity is of value.
Our goal is to make the schools better irregardless of the demographic makeup of the school.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/educ...2744636,00.html
Thomas Hargrove, Scripps Howard News Service, Rocky Mountain News, Mar. 20
America's public schools, after decades of struggle to achieve racial and ethnic balance, are tilting back toward separate institutions.
And children of color today are much more likely to be in mostly minority schools than they were a decade ago.
With little fanfare and scant publicity, federal judges and school policy-makers have abandoned hundreds of desegregation plans written in the 1960s and 1970s.
The public
largely is unaware of the change, according to a recent national poll conducted by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University. Sixty percent of Americans say it is very important that students
of
different races attend classes together."
"� Most incorrectly assume that their local schools are integrated.
A study of U.S. Department of Education records conducted by Scripps Howard News Service found that racial isolationthe percentage of children of color enrolled in schools that are 90 percent minority or morehas risen in at least 36 states between 1991 and 2001, the most recent year for which reliable data are available.
In all, 6.6 million of the nation's 18.9 million black, Hispanic, Asian and American Indian children in 2001 were enrolled in public schools that were 90 percent minority or more. That means 35 percent are racially isolated in their classrooms.
These patterns are not the result of current illegal practices by school districts, said Rod Paige, U.S. secret
ary of education. The reasons are complex, and sociologists and demographers can help us figure it out. Some of the causes involve housing patterns and economic factors.
But several prominent e
xperts on r
ace in public schools a
re quick to blame the nation's political and judicial leaders for making a quiet policy change.
We're in a major process of re-segregation, said Gary Orfield, co-director of Harvard University's Civil Rights Project, which tracks school segregation patterns by school districts. There is a cowardice about this issue. People are afraid to talk about it because it is so sensitive. So we are slipping back into separate-but-equal schools, a policy we tried once without success.
The Scripps Howard study found that students of color were most likely to be enrolled in one-color schools in the states of Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New York and North Dakota. They were least likely to be racially isolated in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, New Hampshire and West Virginia, a
ll states with small minority populations.
The study looked at records from 67,577 public schools, comparing their racial enrollment reports from 1991 and 2001. Of these, 414 schools had most
ly minority student
populatio
ns in 1991 that became mostly white a decade later while 5,506 schools shifted from majority white student populations to mostly minorities.
Put another way, the reshuffling of student populations has been so profound in America that the racial character has entirely changed for one out of every 11 public schools during the 10-year period of the study.
Folks should be screaming from the rooftops about this issue. We have not achieved what we set out to achieve, said Elise Boddie, director of school desegregation cases for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in New York City.
The Scripps Howard study also found that 10 states experienced double-digit increases in the percentage of children of color going to overwhelmingly minority schools in the last decade. They are:
Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
Ohio schools have undergone the fastest statewide transformation, the study f
ound. The numbers of black,
Hispanic,
Asian and American Indian students enrolled in overwhelmingly minority schools in Ohio rose from 9 percent in 1991 to 31 percent a decade later.
Paige discounts the amount of re-segregation occurring, saying that there are some examples of declining classroom diversity.
"'m not sure if that is the general description of the nation, he said. " don't want to come off saying that diversity isn't of value. The president has spoken on this rather clearly. Diversity is of value.
Our goal is to make the schools better irregardless of the demographic makeup of the school.