Despite all the happy slogans that are used to describe America’s education policies like “No Child Left Behind” and “Race for the Top,” and despite the frequently repeated mantra that “education is the civil rights issue of the 21st century,” the one topic we never hear mentioned by policymakers anymore is the need to address the growing segregation of American public schools.

Draw Out Diversity With Unique Offerings

Pedro Noguera, a sociologist, is the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University. He is also executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education.

UPDATED MAY 21, 2012, 11:25 AM

Despite all the happy slogans that are used to describe America’s education policies 

like “No Child Left Behind” and “Race for the Top,” and despite the frequently 

repeated mantra that “education is the civil rights issue of the 21st century,” the one 

topic we never hear mentioned by policymakers anymore is the need to address the 

growing segregation of American public schools. At a time when our nation is 

becoming more racially and culturally diverse, too many of our public, private and 

charter schools remain segregated by race and class.

Of course, today school segregation is more often a byproduct of residential 

segregation. This inadvertent form of racial separation has given those who never 

supported integration in the first place a means to rationalize the status quo as a 

matter of “residential preference” (the term used by Chief Justice John Roberts), 

while allowing others who are too timid or reluctant to take on the controversy to 

ignore the issue entirely.

Place competitive programming like dual language, science and the arts in schools that need to attract diversity.

However, there is clear evidence that the status quo is 

hurting many American children and endangering the 

nation’s future. Throughout the country, students are 

increasingly likely to be among classmates with similar 

racial backgrounds. Meanwhile the poorest and most 

disadvantaged children are more likely to be concentrated 

in under-resourced schools.

A recent report by the Schott Foundation showed that in New York City most of the 

schools that the Department of Education has deemed “failing” are in the poorest 

neighborhoods, and that children in these neighborhoods are least likely to have 

access to high quality academic programming. Similar patterns can be observed in 

poor communities throughout the country.

A vast body of research has shown that integrated education benefits minority and 

majority children. Connecticut has successfully used magnet schools located primarily 

in inner-ring suburbs of major cities, to create schools that are more racially 

integrated. In New York City, a small number of high schools have chosen to be 

“deliberately diverse,” using broad criteria, including interviews in their admissions 

process, to strive for racial balance. While these strategies are not without their 

shortcomings, they do show that when a commitment is made to create diverse 

schools, it can be done.

In New York neighborhoods that are segregated by race, class or both, the city 

should offer competitive programming, like afterschool and pre-school programs, or 

science, arts and language-based curricula, to attract students from diverse 

backgrounds. Forced busing and other more coercive strategies may not be practical 

or even desirable but this should not mean that we should simply resign ourselves to 

accepting racially isolated schools.

As our nation becomes more diverse, it is imperative that we find ways to ensure 

that our children will be prepared to function in a world where they will be forced to 

interact with people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. It is also plainly in 

our economic interest to do everything we can to use education as a means to 

expand access to economic and social opportunity. That can best be accomplished in 

schools that are both equitable and racially diverse.