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School segregation occurs when minority or subordinated groups of individuals are separated from majority or dominant groups in formal schooling institutions. The segregation may occur between schools (interschool segregation) or within schools (intraschool segregation). A historically salient example of interschool segregation in the United States occurred during the period of Jim Crow (early 20th century) with the state-sanctioned formation of "colored" schools and "white" schools. Intraschool segregation occurs within a single schooling facility when students from subordinated or dominant groups are "tracked" or steered into particular classes based on their group membership, typically derived from ascribed characteristics such as gender, race, or class status, not interest or aptitude. Historically, the benefits and drawbacks of school segregation have been vigorously debated; the conclusions of such debates tend to reflect cultural belief systems, particularly beliefs regarding the dynamics of race, ethnicity, and gender and their relationship to social inequality in contemporary society.

Social theorists and researchers have long examined the relationship between formal education and social inequality. With the movement from agrarian economies to industrialized economies dominated by bureaucratic organizational structures, the role of formal education as a credentialing system steadily gained importance. Although education and upward social mobility are highly correlated in more industrialized societies, research consistently shows that schooling institutions in such economies tend to reproduce and maintain existing social inequalities. That is, although upward mobility is possible, most students improve their social standing little, if at all, as a result of their schooling experiences. The reproduction and maintenance of social inequalities is most evident in societies where historically subordinated groups are prevented from participating in formal schooling institutions or are subjected to inferior schooling opportunities as a result of segregation. Given the powerful relationship between schools and inequality, a historical examination of the political, economic, and social dynamics that resulted in de jure (mandated by law) and de facto (in reality or fact) school segregation is necessary to understand contemporary inequalities.

In many instances, formal schooling institutions have been forcefully segregated along race and gender lines for a variety of cultural reasons that are then substantiated when sanctioned by the state. A brief examination of U.S. schooling history that focuses on the causes and effects of interschool segregation along racial and gender lines reveals how political, economic, and social forces can converge to produce persistent social inequality.

Bibliography:

1) Brint, Steven. 2006. Schools and Societies. 2nd ed. Stanford, CA: Stanford Social Sciences.

2) Cohen, Elizabeth G. 2000. "Equitable Classrooms in a Changing Society." Pp. 265-83 in Handbook of the Sociology of Education, edited by M. T. Hallihan. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.

3) Kozol, Jonathan. 2005. The Shame of the Nation. New York: Crown.

4) Oakes, Jeannie. 2005. Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality. 2nd ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

5) Orfield, Gary and Susan E. Eaton. 1996. Dismantling Desegregation: The Quiet Reversal of Brown v. Board of Education. New York: New Press.

6) Orfield, Gary and Chungmei Lee. 2006. Racial Transformation and the Changing Nature of Segregation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Civil Rights Project.

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