What Causes The Desegregation Of Public Schools

History supports the vast academic achievement gap between Black and White students. History also provides concrete evidence for the reasons why Black students perform lower on standardized tests, lower GPAs, achieve less, and behavioral issues in the classroom settings (Noguera 2013). Rowley and Wright (2011) set the groundwork for the discussion on the causes of the achievement gap. Half a century ago, the United States (U.S.) Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) paved the way for the desegregation of public schools. In 1957, the National Guard forced Little Rock, Arkansas to admit Blacks into the public-school system and eight years later the U.S. passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which included a