New Jersey's Public Schools Remain Overwhelmingly Segregated

About a quarter of New Jersey's public school districts are segregated, according to a new report from the Center on Diversity and Equality and Education, and in those districts, many of which are clustered around urban areas like Newark and Camden, some schools are less than one percent white. 

"In New Jersey, we have a system where many of our students who are trapped in these intensely segregated schools don't have resources that will meet their needs adequately," Ryan Coughlan, the co-author of the study, told WNYC. "While there might be parity funding, where their districts are actually receiving similar amounts of money per pupil as some of the wealthier districts, even having equal funding isn't going to serve the needs of a large population of students who are living in poverty."

On the flip side, the report found that 25 percent of the state's schools are well integrated, or moving in that direction.

"The Morris School District is an interesting example," said Coughlan. "They consolidated Morris Township and Morristown back in 1971. Their schools are quite diverse, they've done a lot of work to ensure that they are meeting the needs of all children, but they still struggle at times. There's a group of students there that's been pushing for diversifying the curriculum, and they've been pushing for a history class that actually looks at African-American history in a deeper way."

Coughlan, who's also a faculty member at CUNY, spoke with WNYC's Richard Hake about the report, and how he hopes the state's government will respond. Below, the study's interactive map details the diversity of New Jersey's schools, district by district.