Race, School Integration, and Friendship Segregation in America

Integrated schools may still be substantively segregated if friend- ships fall within race. Drawing on contact theory, this study tests whether school organization affects friendship segregation in a na- tional sample of adolescent friendship networks. The results show that friendship segregation peaks in moderately heterogeneous schools but declines at the highest heterogeneity levels. As suggested by contact theory, in schools where extracurricular activities are integrated, grades tightly bound friendship, and races mix within tracks, friendship segregation is less pronounced. The generally pos- itive relation between heterogeneity and friendship segregation sug- gests that integration strategies built on concentrating minorities in large schools may accentuate friendship segregation.