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BACKGROUND
Although Maryland was expected to have an easier time with desegregation than many other states, after the initial efforts in the 1950s it quickly fell dangerously behind even southern states. When federal courts and the federal Office for Civil Rights made a major push in the 1970s for desegregation, Maryland in fact made less progress than almost any of the other 16 states with a history of segregation by law, reflected by the fact that in 1980 black students in Baltimore and D.C. were attending schools where over 75% of other students were nonwhite. In 2010-2011, a typical white student would attend a school with 27.2% low-income students, while a typical black student attended a school with 54.6% low-income students. Additionally, during the last couple of decades, the number of majority minority schools has nearly doubled, and the number of intensely segregated schools has more than doubled, Today, most Maryland school districts are either multiracial or predominantly white, and two-fifths of white students are generally concentrated with other white students. Many of these issues are centered in Prince George’s County. Despite the challenges, there are countless advocates, parents, and educators who are dedicated to increasing school integration and bringing more diversity to Maryland classrooms.
MEDIA
- WYPR – Fifty years after The Coleman Report: School integration and achievement gaps in Baltimore (October 19, 2016)
- The Washington Post – Report: Half of black students in Maryland attend segregated schools (April 18, 2013)
- The Washington Post – Maryland’s Segregated School System Demands Innovation (March 28, 2016)
- The Baltimore Sun – 60 years after Brown v. Board of Ed, pockets of segregation remain in Md. schools (May 11, 2014)
- The Baltimore Sun – Baltimore’s segregated school system (March 25, 2016)
- The Baltimore Sun – Baltimore principals call for funding forums [Commentary] (May 22, 2014)
- Public School Review – Baltimore County Public Schools Still Deal with Segregation Issues (May 30, 2016)
ADVOCACY
- Greater Greater Washington – Schools are still segregated in Maryland, and state legislators want that to change (April 13, 2016)
- The Office of Larry Hogan – Governor Larry Hogan Announces Commitment to P-TECH Model Schools in Maryland (November 23, 2015)
- Washington Monthly – The New Segregation: It’s class, not race. And we know how to solve it.
OTHER RESOURCES
- Settle for Segregation or Strive for Diversity?: A Defining Moment for Maryland’s Public Schools (UCLA Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Humanos, April 2013)
- Creating Opportunities or Settling for Inequities? Two Decades of Change in Maryland’s Public Schools (Maryland Equity Project, February 2015)
- Trends in Maryland Public Schools: Segregation (Maryland Equity Project, February 2015)
- Slipping Towards Segregation: Local Control and Eroding Desegregation in Montgomery County, Maryland (The Harvard Project on School Desegregation, August 1994)
- Maryland — State Senator Bill Ferguson introduced a bill featuring a diversity-conscious school model, Next Generation Schools, acknowledging the academic and social benefits associated with a diverse learning environment and setting socioeconomic targets for participating schools.
ACTIVE NSCD MEMBERS
- Maryland Equity Project
- Live Baltimore