More than 225,000 students across Massachusetts attend segregated public schools, mostly with low graduation rates and standardized test scores, because state education leaders for decades have failed to comply with laws requiring them to foster integration, according to a new report by a state oversight committee.
Some of the state’s most marginalized students have been most severely affected by the state’s lack of action: 65 percent of the students in the substandard segregated schools are Latino and a quarter are Black, according to the report, “Racial Segregation in Massachusetts Schools”by the Racial Imbalance Advisory Council. Often the students are attending inferior schools within short distances of higher-performing schools.