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The Supreme Court's decision in June to overturn two voluntary school-integration plans in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, Wash., virtually ignored a compendium of research from 553 social scientists that documents the benefits of an integrated learning environment. Yet prevailing presumptions about "merit-based" admissions focus the debate on the individual, making it difficult to address systemic inequities along racial/ethnic lines.

New research presented at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting Sunday seeks to reframe the conversation. In California, where affirmative-action foe Ward Connerly successfully campaigned to ban affirmative action in public education in 1996, the best way for black and Latino students to get into a top-tier University of California campus is to attend a "white" high school, reports Inside Higher Ed.

The Findings

The study, led by New York University assistant professor of higher education Robert Teranishi, evaluated the relationship between high-school demographics and college attendance in California, where whites are now 47 percent of public-school students.

Teranishi found that 88 percent of California high schools have a racial majority of one group. Of those schools, nearly 45 percent have a white majority, and 43 percent have a black or Latino majority. But the impacts of segregation are exacerbated along the pipeline. Of new University of California students, 65 percent come from white-majority schools, and only 22 percent come from black- or Latino-majority schools. This ratio is more pronounced at top UC campuses Berkeley and San Diego.

Critics of affirmative action and voluntary school-integration plans assume that declining black and Latino admission rates at top universities in states where affirmative action has been outlawed mean that these students can't cut it without a "crutch" of some sort, but Teranishi's findings reveal that re-segregation trends in California--and across the country--handicap them from the start.

The research shows that theoretically "merit-based" admissions systems uphold institutionalized white privilege that ends up shortchanging blacks and Latinos, both as students and taxpayers, UCLA professor of higher education Walter Allen told Inside Higher Ed. "The poor folks are subsidizing the educations of wealthy people," he said.

These findings are concerning, but they aren't surprising.

What We Know About Segregation

Schools are at their highest level of re-segregation since the 1960s, and more than 40 percent of the nation's public-school students are people of color, which doesn't bode well for current trends.

A few statistics, according to the Civil Rights Project at UCLA:

• Latinos are the largest group of underrepresented students in public schools (19 percent), followed by blacks (17 percent)
• Nearly three-quarters of black and Latino students, 73 percent and 77 percent, respectively, attend majority black or Latino schools
• White students are most isolated, attending public schools where, on average, only one out of five students are from a different racial/ethnic group
• White teachers work at public schools where more than 90 percent of their colleagues and 70 percent of their students are white, which gives them less opportunity to expose their students (and themselves) to diversity  

Why does this matter? Studies consistently show that fewer advanced-placement courses are offered in predominantly black or Latino high schools; there are fewer qualified and experienced teachers, higher teacher-turnover rates, larger class sizes, and fewer basic supplies.

Few schools in high-poverty, segregated districts have more than half of their senior class graduate each year, and those who do graduate go to college with significantly less preparation, which diminishes their chances of graduating and getting good jobs.

Lifetime earnings, which impact well-being and personal satisfaction, are correlated with college education, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Education pays.

Black and Latino students who attend integrated schools are connected to higher-status social networks, which improves their chances of being accepted to selective colleges and getting better jobs. All of this leads to a more educated work force that has the skills that companies need to be competitive in a knowledge-based global economy where most of the world isn't white.

Unfortunately, the Constitution doesn't guarantee equal public-school funding, which is why social-science researchers are committed to documenting the benefits of an integrated learning environment. But as Newsweek columnist Ellis Cose, who has written at length on affirmative action, says, it will take more than good research to change the direction of public thought given the composition of our Supreme Court.

So where does that leave us? Although certain factions attempt to manipulate public interpretation of social-science research and court decisions, a new Civil Rights Project report explains why we cannot be bullied out of ensuring equity and documents that it has happened far too often. Read the report.

"Four years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court powerfully recognized the compelling reasons for universities to educate their students with fellow students who bring into the campus the diversity of experiences and perspectives from all parts of American society," said Gary Orfield, Civil Rights Project co-director and a professor of education at the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, upon the release of the report. "The Court concluded that there were major gains from a diverse student body for students of all races and for society and its major institutions. We urge leaders of higher education to resist threats and intimidation and to expand programs to integrate higher education, programs that are more secure now with the recent 2007 decision of the reconstituted Supreme Court."

The Educational Diversity Project was also unveiled Sunday and will assess the impact of student diversity in a law-school environment. Initial findings suggest white law students are more likely than law students of color to have been raised by two parents and to have spoken English as the primary language in their homes. Law students of color report more frequent undergraduate encounters with discrimination and expect to work more hours in law school than their white counterparts just to keep up.

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