Table 1 demonstrates one form of student segregation, comparing student race/ethnicity across high- and low-poverty school districts. The table uses poverty quintiles, where districts in each state are ranked by student poverty rate and an equal number of districts is placed in each bin for each state. Districts in poverty quintile 5 represent the 20 percent of districts in each state with the highest poverty rates. Underrepresented students of color are far more likely than White students to attend high-poverty school districts. Nationally, Black and Latinx students are over twice as likely to attend a high-poverty district than a low-poverty district. American Indian/indigenous students are 3.3 times as likely, while White and Asian students are 50 and 40 percent less likely to attend a high-poverty district than a low-poverty district, respectively. In short, state funding decisions—both how funding is allocated and where legislators choose to expand or cut budgets—have serious consequences for school finance equity along both racial/ethnic and socioeconomic terms.
Student Race/Ethnicity and Poverty Rate in High- and Low-Poverty Districts, 2017—18
| . | . | By Poverty Quintile . | . | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| . | All . | 5 . | . | . | . | 1 . | Ratio . |
| . | Districts . | (High) . | 4 . | 3 . | 2 . | (Low) . | (High/Low) . |
| No. of School Districts | 12,810 | 2,592 | 2,563 | 2,559 | 2,563 | 2,533 | — |
| Poverty rate | 16.4% | 27.9% | 21.0% | 16.9% | 13.3% | 8.2% | 3.4 |
| Student Race/Ethnicity | |||||||
| American Indian/Alaskan Native | 1.0% | 1.9% | 1.2% | 0.8% | 0.9% | 0.6% | 3.3 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 4.9% | 2.9% | 3.4% | 4.1% | 5.0% | 7.5% | 0.4 |
| Black/African American | 14.2% | 24.0% | 13.8% | 15.0% | 12.6% | 9.4% | 2.5 |
| Latinx | 26.5% | 37.1% | 36.6% | 28.2% | 24.2% | 15.5% | 2.4 |
| All other/not available | 4.1% | 3.7% | 3.8% | 4.5% | 4.2% | 4.6% | 0.8 |
| White | 49.2% | 30.4% | 41.2% | 47.4% | 53.2% | 62.4% | 0.5 |
| . | . | By Poverty Quintile . | . | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| . | All . | 5 . | . | . | . | 1 . | Ratio . |
| . | Districts . | (High) . | 4 . | 3 . | 2 . | (Low) . | (High/Low) . |
| No. of School Districts | 12,810 | 2,592 | 2,563 | 2,559 | 2,563 | 2,533 | — |
| Poverty rate | 16.4% | 27.9% | 21.0% | 16.9% | 13.3% | 8.2% | 3.4 |
| Student Race/Ethnicity | |||||||
| American Indian/Alaskan Native | 1.0% | 1.9% | 1.2% | 0.8% | 0.9% | 0.6% | 3.3 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 4.9% | 2.9% | 3.4% | 4.1% | 5.0% | 7.5% | 0.4 |
| Black/African American | 14.2% | 24.0% | 13.8% | 15.0% | 12.6% | 9.4% | 2.5 |
| Latinx | 26.5% | 37.1% | 36.6% | 28.2% | 24.2% | 15.5% | 2.4 |
| All other/not available | 4.1% | 3.7% | 3.8% | 4.5% | 4.2% | 4.6% | 0.8 |
| White | 49.2% | 30.4% | 41.2% | 47.4% | 53.2% | 62.4% | 0.5 |
Notes: Poverty quintiles have approximately the same number of districts in each quintile, for each state. Districts in poverty quintile 5 are the 20 percent of districts in each state with the highest poverty rates. This more straightforward approach to identifying high- and low-poverty districts differs from the regression-based approach used in all other figures and tables. Latinx refers to the federal category Hispanic, non-White. Ratio shows the odds that a student who identifies in a particular racial/ethnic category is enrolled in a high- rather than low-poverty district. Sample includes 12,810 school districts that serve 47.4 million students. Hawaii and Washington, DC are excluded because both operate a single school district. Source: National Center for Education Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau.