New RSF-Funded Dataset “Segregation Index” Now Publicly Available
The Segregation Index, a joint project between University of Southern California and Stanford University has recently launched. Funded in part by a Russell Sage Foundation grant, the Segregation Index is a comprehensive resource for tracking neighborhood and school segregation in the United States.
Key findings from the Segregation Index on U.S. school segregation:
- In large school districts, White-Black segregation between schools increased 35% and White-Asian segregation more than doubled from 1991 to 2020. White-Hispanic segregation was higher in 2020 than in 1991, peaking in the late 2000s.
- Three large school districts – the Los Angeles Unified School District, Philadelphia, and New York City – all fall in the top 10 most racially segregated school districts for White-Black, White-Hispanic, and White-Asian segregation based on average levels from 1991-2020.
- In large school districts, segregation between poor students (students who are eligible for free lunch) and non-poor students has increased by 47% since 1991.
- In 2020, the poverty rate in the average poor student’s school was about 20 percentage points higher than in the average non-poor student’s school in the same district.