Segregation and Education

"Although segregation has often been viewed in racial terms, racial segregation is strongly related to socioeconomic segregation (Rumberger & Palardy, 2005)". This means that Black and Latino students are more likely to attend schools that are low-income, and have lower achievement when looking at standardized test scores. In the 2002-2003 school year, the average Black or Latino student attended a school where 50 percent of the students were poor, leading to the extent that both individual poverty and school poverty affect academic achievement (Rumberger & Palardy, 2005). When looking further into the concept of segregation in public schools, many researchers according to Rumberger and Palardy (2005) argued that what mattered most was the socioeconomic composition of the school rather than the racial composition; however, generally the two are correlated. Also, research done by Saddler (2005) indicated that 61 percent of African-American fourth grade students are below basic reading level compared to only 23 percent of White Americans. These scores are not just a reflection of the education of elementary students, but are also apparent in higher levels as well. Where only 41 percent of African-Americans graduated in 6 years from a NCAA division I school compared to 61 percent of White American college freshmen in the 2002 class (Saddler, 2005). The essential question is; are public schools that are racially and economically segregated able to adequately educate minority students equally to their White counterparts?

Terms that will be defined in the study are; de-educated, segregation, dependency ratio, de facto segregation and de jure segregation. Segregation according to Clark, Chein and Cook (2004) refers to that restriction of opportunities for different types of

Praxis 2

associations between the members of one racial, religious, national or geographic origin, or linguistic group and those of other groups, which result from or is supported by the action of any official body or agency representing some branch of government. De-educated refers to and is used to shed light on the fact that, as a whole, African-Americans youth are systematically excluded from the education system and/or being systematically destroyed within that system (Saddler, 2005).

This study will look at the level of achievement of Black and Latino students who attend a public school that is at least 50 percent minority and low socioeconomic level. Compared to those Black and Latino students who attend a public school where there is more racial and economic diversity. Information will be obtained from PSAT, SAT and Georgia High School Graduation Tests scores from 1995-2005 school years. The study will focus mainly on 11th and 12th grade students in the central Georgia region.

The purpose of this study will be to influence how students are better educated who are in segregated