Ideas & Findings

In recent years, a growing number of policymakers have concluded that the nation's school-desegregation efforts have largely failed. But a study published in the winter issue of the journal Review of Educational Research suggests that just the opposite may be true. Attending integrated schools, the report says, provides important--and often overlooked--benefits for African-American students.

Amy Stuart Wells of the University of California at Los Angeles and Robert L. Crain of Teachers College, Columbia University analyzed 21 recent school-desegregation studies. However, rather than focus on the short-term effects of integration as most studies did in the 1960's and early 1970's, the researchers looked at long-term outcomes. They wanted to know, for example, how attending predominantly white schools affected the college-attendance rates of black students and whether those students went on to work or study in integrated or predominantly black environments.

Several studies showed that black students attending desegregated schools had higher occupational aspirations than their counterparts in segregated settings. What's more, those goals were more realistically grounded in their educational plans. Desegregated black students were also more likely to attend desegregated colleges, to work in integrated settings, and to hold private-sector white-collar and professional jobs. And, of the studies that focused on educational attainment, all but one found that students from integrated schools had gone on to complete...