Individual and regional differences in the effects of school racial segregation on Black students’ health

Background

School racial segregation in the US has risen steadily since the 1990s, propelled by Supreme Court decisions rolling back the legacy of Brown v. Board. Quasi-experimental research has shown this resegregation harms Black students' health. However, whether individual or family characteristics (e.g., higher family incomes) are protective against segregation's health harms—or whether segregation is more damaging in regions of the US with fewer public sector investments—remains unclear. We leverage the quasi-random timing of school districts being released from Brown-era integration plans to examine heterogeneity in the association between resegregation and Black students' health.

Methods & findings

We took an instrumental variables approach, using the timing of integration order releases as an instrument for school segregation and analyzing a pre-specified list of theoretically-motivated modifiers in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. In sensitivity analyses, we fit OLS models that directly adjusted for relevant covariates. Results suggest resegregation may have been particularly harmful in the South, where districts resegregated more quickly after order releases. We find little evidence that the effects of school segregation differed across family income, gender, or age.

Conclusion

The end of court-ordered integration threatens the health of Black communities—especially in the US South. Modestly higher incomes do not appear protective against school segregation's harms. Research using larger samples and alternative measures of school segregation—e.g., between districts, instead of within districts—may further our understanding of segregation's health effects, especially in Northern states.