We already know that NYC’s most elite high schools admit very few black students, and now, a new study shows run-of-the-mill public schools across the state aren’t exactly models of diversity either. In fact, according to a report published by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, New York has the most racially segregated public schools in the country.
As the AP reports, the racial divide is also an economic one:
He and his fellow researchers say segregation has the effect of concentrating black and Latino students in schools with high ratios of poor students compared with the statewide average…the typical black or Latino student attended a school where close to 70 percent of classmates were low-income. The typical white student went to a school where just 30 percent of classmates were low-income.
Because high poverty schools tend to have “health issues, mobile populations, entrenched violence and teachers who come from the least selective training programs,” the study argues, black and Latino students who attend economically and racially diverse schools tend to perform better than their peers in schools with de facto segregation, as in New York.
With institutional divides like these holding back students of color across the state, and the well established ties between race and poverty in America, it’s no wonder NYC is still so economically segregated.
(Photo: @wenzday01)
