School segregation in multi-ethnic England

Aspects of both educational development and multi-cultural inter-relationships are frequently related to school ethnic composition, with arguments that ethnically segregated schools both retard the development of multi-ethnic understanding and influence educational performance. In this paper, we employ data on their ethnic composition to portray the extent of segregation in English secondary schools in 2001, using a novel graphical method to explore its nature and spatial variation. We find substantial segregation on ethnic criteria in some places. Nevertheless, over the country as a whole, attendance at substantially mono-ethnic schools is not the norm for members of the non-white groups (though it is for whites in many areas). Half of all non-white secondary students in England attended schools where more than 75 per cent of the total enrolment comprised whites.