| On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court declared in the landmark historic Brown v. Board of Education decision that separate schools for black and white students are unequal and violate the 14th Amendment. This decision effectively ended state sanctioned school segregation.;Fast forward fifty years later to the year 2004 and the impact of this decision looks much different. The public schools in our nation are fast becoming resegregated and it appears that this trend is increasing in its intensity. Census data of 2000 indicates the United States is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse than ever before in its history. However, school children are largely isolated from this growing diversity because of their respective school enrollment.;Segregation from whites in schools has increased for African-American and Latino children. Additionally, the majority of the schools these children attend are at or near the poverty line. An examination of segregation trends and minority student achievement indicates a change in direction beginning in the 1980's and continuing today. As school segregation increases, the gap between the achievement level of minority students and white students widens.;A quantitative research design examined the overall research question, "How does the attendance of African-American and Latino students at segregated secondary schools affect their achievement in Mathematics and Language Arts"? Descriptive statistics were used to address this research question, as well as, two subsidiary questions.;To acquire historical information on segregation, resegregation, and the segregation in the public schools of New Jersey, a variety of sociological, legal, and educational resources were consulted. The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University was invaluable in documenting the current status of school segregation and the academic achievement of African-American and Latino students. Other sources of data, all of which fell under the realm of public domain, were obtained from New Jersey Department of Education records and publications available at the local school level. |
