School reform alone cannot substantially improve the performance of the poorest African American students. This performance problem must be addressed primarily by improving the social and economic conditions that bring too many children to school unprepared to take advantage of what schools have to offer. Integrating disadvantaged black students…

Fifty years after the "Brown v. Board of Education" decision outlawed de jure segregation in American schools, many school districts remain segregated. Despite numerous efforts aimed at desegregation, residential segregation--the primary barrier to significant school desegregation--remains entrenched throughout the United States. The Miami-Dade…

This paper examines the relationship between school and residential segregation, noting that while these two forms of segregation are fundamentally linked, other factors cause them to diverge. The analysis focuses on segregation in 329 metropolitan areas. Data come from the 1998-99 National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data…