A new report from the Har-vard University Civil Rights Project, Schools More Separate, finds that America started down the road to racially integrated schools in 1954 and is now headed in the opposite direction. This turnabout may be one reason for the growing achievement gap between minority and white students.

What do statistics show?
If you're an average white student in a U.S. classroom, most of the faces around you will mirror your own. If you're Black or Latino, most classmates will be "of color."

The research-ers say 70 percent of Black students and 75 percent of Latinos now attend predominately minority schools, an increase of about 7 percent for each group since 1980.

More than a third of Black and Latino students go to schools with 90 to 100 percent minority populations. Poverty hits hard at high-minority schools. The average Black or Latino student attends a school with a 40 percent poverty rate. That is twice the percentage for the average white child.

White students are the most segregated. On average, their schools are 80 percent white.
Asian immigrants are much less isolated. Most go to schools where only a few children speak their native language.

How and why did this happen?
Concentrated in the South, most federal desegregation efforts occurred 30 to 35 years ago. Southern schools became the nation's most integrated. Enforcement waned with the Nixon Administration, and in 1974, the Supreme Court blocked city-suburban desegregation attempts, setting the stage for high-minority, high-poverty districts in major U.S. cities.

Then, in the 1990s, court rulings released districts from long-standing desegregation orders.

Today, Black and Latino families moving into suburbs find their schools increasingly segregated. The report says the causes of resegregation include low birthrates for whites, higher rates for minorities, non-white immigration, and the tendency of whites to avoid high-minority schools if they have alternatives.

Is the issue of resegregation that critical?
Gary Orfield, principal author of the Harvard study, says it's foolish to bet that separate but equal can work. "We tried this from 1896 to the 1960s," he says. "The equal part was never enforced.

"High-poverty schools end up with less-experienced teachers, fewer re-sources, and lower expectations," says Orfield. "Visit schools in a high-poverty area, and then walk into a school in a more affluent neighborhood. The disparities are obvious."

Getting good teachers into disadvantaged schools is critical, he adds. But he warns, "Teachers can't solve everything. If they're going to be punished for that, they'll just leave."

Some high-poverty elementary schools have met with success, he acknowledges. Their secret: experi-enced teachers and a great principal.

But, he adds, "What happens is the principal gets promoted and the school falls apart. Successes never spread systemwide and almost never happen on the high school level."

What about testing?
The time may be ending when we think we'll close the achievement gap with more tests, says Orfield. "One day we'll look back on this myopic period and it will seem stupid."

Do parents and students want diverse schools?
Orfield reports "extraordinarily positive attitudes" among high school students in integrated classrooms. White and minority students report they have friends of different races and feel comfortable talking with each other about racial issues. A 1999 Gallup Poll also shows strong support for integrated schools among Black and white adults.

What are the consequences of resegregation?
Although it doesn't claim direct cause and effect, the report says the period of desegregation coincided with a narrowing of the achievement gap on national reading and math tests. Now, the gap is getting bigger again.

With jobs and income so closely linked to education, the report sees problems mounting for students in high-poverty schools. Schools with concentrations of whites, Asians and middle-class students have more accelerated classes, more experienced staff, and better college connections.

With graduation standards rising and affirma- tive action programs on the decline, minority students isolated in poor schools can suffer life-long penalties, the report concludes.

As the United States and its workplaces become more diverse, whites in segregated schools will also be disadvantaged, says Orfield. "So many white suburban kids don't know what's going on in an interracial environment. There's fear on their faces when put in such a situation."

Can we reverse this trend?
Desegregation has been most successful in large countywide districts that promote racial balance through magnets or other choice programs, the report says. It urges the expansion of these programs.

The report also proposes more teacher exchanges between cities and suburbs, and two-way bilingual schools where students help each other achieve fluency.

And it suggests a study of school and housing policies to avoid massive resegregation of inner suburbs.
"We need stable interracial neighborhoods, says Orfield. "We'll get there eventually, but we'll lose a generation in the meantime." 4

-Mary Anne Hess

For more: The full report is at www.law.harvard.edu/civilrights/.