Students benefit from desegregation
05/04/04 -- Students who went to racially mixed high schools in the late 1970s were better able to get along later with people from diverse backgrounds, concludes a study released March 30 by Columbia University's Teachers College.
How Desegregation Changed Us: The Effects of Racially Mixed Schools on Students and Society is based on interviews of members of the Class of 1980 who attended school during the height of the desegregation movement. According to the report, these students greatly benefited from their interactions with members of other races in their schools.
The study says many of these students believed that desegregation signified a more equitable society, helped them overcome racial stereotypes, and created a greater sense of comfort and togetherness across color lines.
At the same time, however, the study finds that desegregated schools often continued to have segregated classrooms.
Now in their early 40s, the graduates of desegregated schools struggle to find high-quality, mixed-race schools for their own children.
"Today, there's a much greater emphasis on test scores than there was 25 years ago and much less emphasis on schools as places where people learn different points of view and the complexity of our diverse society," the report states.
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