The study, from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, used previously compiled data from the Department of Education to track how first-grade students' reading abilities change over time, depending upon whether they attend a racially segregated or integrated school. It found that black students in segregated schools tended to make smaller gains in reading than their black counterparts in more integrated schools. This held true even when researchers accounted for black students’ backgrounds.
The study defines a segregated school as one where 75 percent of its population is made up of minorities. Researchers used data from the 1998 – 99 Early Childhood Longitudinal Study on about 4,000 first-graders nationwide.
