Schools resegregate after being freed from judicial oversight, Stanford study shows

Stanford Report, December 5, 2012 - In a sweeping study of the lifting of court-ordered desegregation plans, researchers show the fading of the dream of black and white students attending school together. The lifting of court-ordered school integration efforts over the last 22 years has led to the gradual unraveling of a key legacy of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. After being freed from judicial oversight, hundreds of large and medium-sized school districts in the South have steadily resegregated, slowly moving away from the ideal of black and white children attending school together. That's the finding of a study by researchers from the Stanford University School of Education , which was just published in the fall issue of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management . It reports that nearly half of the almost 500 school districts that were under court order to desegregate as of 1990 have been released from judicial oversight during the last two decades, resulting in a slow but steady resegregation, as compared with districts where judicial oversight continues. Smaller studies have examined the effects of the lifting of court-ordered desegregation plans. But the new study, which was conducted at the School of Education's Center for Education Policy Analysis, is believed to be the most comprehensive to date and looks at a longer time than previous studies.