Elementary School Desegregation and Mid-Life Cognitive Function

Exposure to state-level school desegregation during primary school was associated with higher midlife cognitive function among Black Americans who grew up in the U.S. South from the 1950s to 1970s, according to findings from Faculty Associates Katrina Walsemann, Heide Jackson, and colleagues. "State-level desegregation in the U.S. South and mid-life cognitive function among Black and White adults," published in Social Science & Medicine in November 2023, reports that "Greater exposure to desegregated primary schooling was associated with higher cognitive function and episodic memory among Black but not White adults.

The team determined if exposure to school desegregation in the two decades following Brown was linked to cognitive function at midlife. They write, "Given the importance of early life education for later life cognitive function (Borghans et al., 2015) as well as prior work that suggests the possible benefits of desegregated schooling earlier in childhood (Aiken-Morgan et al., 2015; Peterson et al., 2021)," Walsemann, et al, focused on exposure to desegregated primary schooling.

Among Black adults, the association between school desegregation and cognitive function and episodic memory remained after adjustment for state-level education quality and educational attainment. . . . [S]tate-level school desegregation efforts," they concluded, "played a consequential role in shaping the cognitive function of Black adults who grew up in the U.S. South."

Katrina M. Walsemann, Nicole L. Hair, Mateo P. Farina, Pallavi Tyagi, Heide Jackson, Jennifer A. Ailshire.
(2023). State-level desegregation in the U.S. South and mid-life cognitive function among Black and White adults,
Social Science & Medicine, Volume 338, 116319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116319