All Segregation is Not Equal: The Impact of Latino and Black School Composition

Abstract

Latinos are a large, highly segregated minority group achieving less than whites in school, but the extent to which segregation is responsible for their relatively low achievement is not well known. The effect of proportion Latino on educational achievement is often assumed to be identical to the effect of proportion black. I use the NELS to test this assumption. Results reveal that segregation concentrates disadvantages for Latinos and blacks, but surprisingly, proportion Latino tends to positively influence test scores over the high school years. Proportion black, in contrast, does not affect test scores except for a negative effect for blacks in science. Integration of Latinos with whites would reduce some of the inequalities between schools, it would not hurt and in some areas would help the test scores of whites, but it would hurt Latinos unless some of the helpful features of predominantly Latino schools could be copied.

Education and physical activity mediate the relationship between ethnicity and cognitive function in late middle-aged adults

“…Previous research supports this finding. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study, Goldsmith (2003) analyzed the effects of school segregation in the early 1990's on test scores. Results showed that being in a highly segregated school was positively associated with test scores for Hispanic students, but negatively associated with test scores for black students.…”

“…Results showed that being in a highly segregated school was positively associated with test scores for Hispanic students, but negatively associated with test scores for black students. Reasons for the differential effect included the notion that immigrant parents have been shown to have optimism about their children's' potential success and can be very encouraging, and that Latino students are less likely than black students to come from single parent homes (Goldsmith 2003, Kao and Tienda 1998). …”

The Decade of Immigrant Dispersion and Growth: A Cohort Analysis of Children of Immigrants’ Educational Experiences 1990–2002

“…To measure the linguistic resources of immigrant families, we rely on a proxy measure — student's English language ability . We create the measure by averaging the self‐reported scores students gave about their reading, writing, listening, and/or speaking ability on a scale from 1 = “very well” to 4 = “not very well.” We reverse code the scale, so a higher score indicates stronger English language ability and code native English language speakers as 6 (Goldsmith ).…”

Who’s at Risk in School and What’s Race Got to Do With It?

“…As suggested by the findings of Borman et al (2004), contemporary research studies have begun to include integrated schools in their analyses (sometimes labeled as racially balanced or diverse schools), rather than relying on simple comparisons between predominantly Black or minority schools and predominantly White schools (Brown-Jeffy, 2006;Goldsmith, 2003Goldsmith, , 2004Southworth & Mickelson, 2007). These studies paint a more complex picture of the effects of racial composition.…”