Brown’s Promise, an initiative to combat racial segregation and resource inequalities in schools, and the Segregation Tracking Project, a collaboration between the University of California, Los Angeles and Stanford University, has published a new report ranking the U.S. states by their levels of racial segregation in public schools.
Using data from the 2023–2024 academic year, the researchers measured the degree of segregation between White students compared to minoritized students (Black, Hispanic, and Native American students) within each individual school district as well as between districts in each state. Combined, these measurements result in an index of segregation, with a value of 1 implying complete segregation and a value of zero implying no segregation.
According to the report, New York’s public school system is the most racially segregated among all U.S. states, with an index of 0.544. This means that, on average, Black, Hispanic, and Native American students in New York attend schools where the share of Black, Hispanic, and Native American students is 54.4 percentage points higher than the share of White students. This racial segregation in New York public schools primarily exists as a result of segregation between districts, rather than segregation within districts.
Illinois and Pennsylvania were found to have the second and third-highest rates of racial segregation in public schools, with indexes of 0.494 and 0.486, respectively. In contrast, the states with the lowest levels of racial segregation in their public school systems are Vermont (0.085), West Virginia (0.137), and Wyoming (0.172).
In addition to measurements of racial segregation, the report also includes rankings of states’ economic segregation in public schools. This measurement was determined by comparing segregation between students who qualify for Free and Reduced Price Lunch and those who do not. The District of Columbia (0.374), New Jersey (0.348), and Nevada (0.345) have the highest levels of economic segregation, while Wyoming (0.087), Idaho (0.124), and Vermont (0.128) have the lowest levels.
