Integration and Diversity

Research in this section explores the impacts and benefits of racial and ethnic diversity in education, as well as resegregation trends and remedies in our nation's public schools.

The End of Keyes—Resegregation Trends and Achievement in Denver Public Schools

In its 1973 Keyes decision, the Supreme Court delivered an opinion that dramatically shaped the future of both the Denver public schools and the country’s legal consideration of school desegregation. In essence, Keyes afforded Hispanics in the Southwest the same kinds of rights to desegregation remedies as Black students had previously gained through other court decisions. For Denver, these decisions meant a directive to desegregate the District’s schools. More than two decades later, the courts revisited Keyes, this time to a different end. In 1995, Judge Richard P. Matsch, who had presided over court supervision of Denver’s desegregation plan, declared that “the vestiges of past discrimination by the defendants have been eliminated to the extent practicable” (“Court oversight,” 1995), and, with his decree, ended mandated desegregation in the Denver Public Schools.

Racial Transformation and the Changing Nature of Segregation

This report is about the changing patterns of segregation in American public schools through the 2003-2004 school year. We begin by examining the transformation of racial composition in the nation’s schools, the dynamic patterns of segregation and desegregation of all racial groups in regions, states, and districts by using data from 1968 until 2003-4. We examine both the changes over the last decade (1991-2003) as well as those over a much longer period (1954-2003). Data from this report are computed from the Common Core of Data of the National Center for Education Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education for the years 1988, 1991, and 2003.

Denver Public Schools: Resegregation, Latino Style

The goal of this report (the first of two) is to examine the broader demographic and segregation patters of the district within the context of the 1973 Keyes case. We provide general trends that tell an important story in their own right and build a foundation for school-level analyses that will be presented in a subsequent report for the Piton Foundation.

New Faces, Old Patterns? Segregation in the Multiracial South

This report begins by showing the patterns of segregation and desegregation of various groups, regions and states by using data from 1968 until present day. It examines both the changes over the last decade (1991-2003) as well as those over a much longer period (1954-2003). In the context of growing diversity in our nation’s public schools, it is increasingly important to examine the gains brought about by school desegregation as well as the increasingly multiracial nature of segregation for the growing Latino population in the South and the reality of resegregation in many of the Southern and Border states for black and white students.

New Faces, Old Patterns? Segregation in the Multiracial South

If desegregation plans were still in effect we would expect that as the share of whites in a state declined, white students would tend to be in schools that, on average, had an increased share of black students. In several states, however, even though the percentage of white students has declined significantly, the level of white contact with blacks actually fell.

School Resegregation: Must the South Turn Back?

Released by the University of North Carolina Press, this book presents groundbreaking original research from scholars around the country on the causes, consequences and potential solutions to this trend in various areas in the South.

Why Segregation Matters: Poverty and Educational Inequality

The high level of poverty among children, together with many housing policies and practices which excludes poor people from most communities, mean that students in inner city schools face isolation not only from the white community but also from middle class schools. Minority children are far more likely than whites to grow up in persistent poverty. Since few whites have direct experience with concentrated poverty schools, it is very important to examine research about its effects.