A new study places the tri-state region among the country's worst for school segregation, with New York singled out as the most segregated of all, News 12 reported. The findings put New York, New Jersey and Connecticut near the top of national rankings that measure how divided public schools are.
The research comes from a dedicated tracking effort. The Segregation Tracking Project at Brown's Promise examined both racial and economic segregation in public schools across the country during the 2023 to 2024 period.
New York stood out at the very top of the list. According to the report, the state has the most racially segregated public schools in the country, placing it first on the racial segregation measure.
Connecticut also landed high on both measures the study tracked. The state was ranked 11th in the nation for racial segregation in its public schools and 6th for economic segregation, marking it as one of the worst states on each count.
New Jersey rounded out the regional picture with rankings of its own. The state came in 8th for racial segregation in schools and second in the country for economic segregation, leaving it among the most divided on the economic measure.
The study did not fold its findings into a single number. The Segregation Tracking Project ranked states separately on racial segregation and on economic segregation, which is why a state can sit at a different spot on each list. New Jersey is the clearest example in the region, placing second in the country for economic segregation but eighth for racial segregation.
Taken together, the rankings leave all three tri-state states among the nation's most segregated on at least one of the two measures, from New York at the top of the racial list to New Jersey near the top of the economic one. By tracking both divides at once, for public schools in 2023 to 2024, the project frames school segregation in the region as a problem with two distinct dimensions rather than a single one.