The process of data compilation required matching of school districts across years by their NCES identification number or school district name; some districts could not be identified for all three time points, and these are omitted from the analysis.  Of 13,810 districts for which we had data for 2000, we analyze demographics across three time points for 8,723 districts.  These districts included 92% of all public school elementary enrollment in 2000 (23,500,000 students), and 96% of all black students (4,455,000 black students).

A webpage has been developed to present information on court cases and demographic data for all of these districts (http://www.albany.edu/mumford/brown).  Users can select a state, and then a school district within a state.  The webpage lists court cases (if any) that involved this district, and provides a link to the Westlaw text of the court decision.  It also provides information on racial and ethnic composition of the elementary student population for available years, and summary indices of school segregation.  The webpage includes data on Hispanic and Asian students; this report deals only with white-black segregation.

Over time it is hoped that feedback from users will make the case inventory more complete and more accurate, constituting a permanent new information resource for scholars and the public.

Court-ordered desegregation: How many districts, when, and where?

Since the 1950s there have been many court cases in which some aspect of equal educational opportunity across racial groups has been at issue, involving many districts, sometimes challenging statewide practices that affect every school district in a state.  This report deals with only some of these cases. 

1) “Desegregation cases?/b> here include only cases where assignment of students across schools was directly at stake.  This line is not always easy to draw.  A case regarding North Carolina’s statewide law prohibiting busing to achieve school desegregation is treated as a segregation case; a case challenging a state’s financial support to private schools created in the wake of desegregation is not. 

2) We code districts as having a “mandated desegregation plan?/b> if a case results in a court decision requiring or affirming steps to reduce school segregation, regardless of whether the decision was later reversed.  A plan was sometimes reached through an out-of-court settlement between the parties that was later ratified by a court.  We found 358 such court cases.  In addition some districts implemented a voluntary desegregation plan (where “voluntary?may have been in response to external pressure and perhaps to a lawsuit).  Unless we could identify a specific court decision requiring or affirming the plan, we treat the district as having no plan.  The web page gives links to unsuccessful lawsuits; this report deals only with those where a desegregation plan was required.  

3) We also code districts as having a “mandated desegregation plan?/b> if there was no court case, but the district implemented a plan after having been targeted for compliance by HEW.