From Resegregation to Reintegration: Trends in Metropolitan School Racial Segregation, 1992-2009

• In Event: Convergence and Disjunction in School Desegregation

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed growing concern regarding the “resegregation” of American schools, a phenomenon which has been alternately attributed to the erosion of legal support for integration and the increasing diversity of student demographics. Using hierarchical longitudinal modeling techniques, we evaluate these claims on a national sample of 366 metropolitan areas for the years 1992 through 2009. We find that segregation increased over the 1990s; however, it has declined over the past decade for all racial/ethnic groups except Hispanics, yielding net reductions in segregation. Segregation decreased for all racial/ethnic groups after controlling for changes in demographic composition. We conclude that existing explanations of segregation trends are insufficient and conclude with a consideration of alternative explanations for our findings.

Authors

• Meredith Paige Richards, Southern Methodist University

• Kori James Stroub, The University of Texas - Austin