Contrasts, trends and implications of student course enrollments and extra curricular memberships in desegregated high schools: A report to the National Institute of Education, United States Department of Education

This paper examines academic program, course enrollments, and extracurricular memberships in racially and ethnically integrated high schools with the aim of determining the extent of participation by black and white students within schools. The goal of the study was to ascertain whether students are resegregated in schools through these mechanisms. Data were obtained from 1,318 schools nationally as part of the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS) of the High School Class of 1972. Analysis of the data shows that: (1) white students in desegregated schools participate less in extracurricular and social activities than those in all white schools; (2) black students participate more in such desegregated activities as athletics, drama, and music, while whites are more active in honorary clubs; (3) blacks are less likely to enroll in academic or college preparatory programs in both segregated and desegregated schools; and (4) interracial contact is diminished in desegregated schools because of the use of tracking or ability grouping procedure. Alternative measures to promote student heterogeneity are proposed. Appended to the report are statistical tables.