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.