School segregation has been rising over the past three decades, with the greatest increase in large school districts, according to new research from Stanford University and the University of Southern California.

Seventy years after the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that outlawed school segregation, schools are far more integrated overall, researchers found. Busing programs to create racially balanced school districts were widespread in the 1970s and continued into the 1990s in some communities.

But even as neighborhoods have become more racially mixed and economic inequality among racial groups has fallen, Black-white segregation in schools increased from 1991 to 2019 — by 64% in the 100 largest districts, which serve about 38% of all Black students.

The increase is largely due to the end of most court oversight that required integration and a rise in policies favoring school choice and parental preference, researchers said. The findings, they said, should “sound an alarm for educators and policymakers.”

Chalkbeat, May 6