In the tenth of a series on school segregation in the eastern states, UCLA’s The Civil Rights Project finds that Connecticut’s efforts at desegregation have been largely successful — though there is still much work to be done, particularly in charter schools.
From the report’s executive summary:
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The white share of the total public school enrollment dropped in the state from 76.8% to 59.9% between 1987 and 2012 while the Latino and Asian share increased substantially as was happening across the U.S. The proportion of Latino students more than doubled, rising from 8.8 to 20.1% over the last twenty-five years. The basic story is that fewer white children were born and the population change reflected the large immigrations to the U.S. from Latin America and Asia. The change did not reflect a surge of black enrollment.
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The overall share of African American and Latino students who attended intensely segregated schools (90-100% minority schools) and apartheid schools (99-100% minority schools) decreased. There was a significant drop in extreme segregation.
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The share of students living in poverty nearly doubled over the last fifteen years from 19.5% to 36.2%, also reflecting national trends. In 2012, the typical African American student attended a school with 63.1% poor students, but the typical white student had 22.3% classmates from low-income families. Segregation was double segregation for students of color.
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Educational outcomes were clearly related to segregation. The overall graduation rate was positively correlated with the proportion of white and Asian students but was negatively linked with the black and Latino share in a school. Academic performance showed the same pattern. This was related to many historic and contemporary inequalities associated with race and ethnicity in U.S. society. The report summarizes a half century of research on the benefits of integration.
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Connecticut’s magnet schools showed great potential of promoting racially integrated schools. In 2012-2013, magnet schools in Connecticut enrolled a more balanced number of students from each racial group (e.g., 30.2% whites, 31.4% blacks, 30.5% Latinos, and 4.4% Asians) as compared to non-magnet schools, which enrolled 61.7% whites, 11.6% blacks, 19.5% Latinos, and 4.8% Asians. Additionally, the typical student of each racial group in Connecticut’s magnet schools attended a similar percentage of low-income students, ranging from 49% to 59%; however, there were noticeable racial disparities in contact with poor students in non-magnet schools from 21% to 62%.
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Connecticut charter schools are far more segregated than traditional public or magnet schools.
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