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ievement by race. This research also supports the research presented by the NELS, clearly stating that racial segregation in schools across the U.S. directly affects minority students' ability to compete in institutions of higher learning and eventually in the job market.

(Austin, A M, 2008) found that the gap between white and minority students is about 11.2% of the average GPA. This study also looked at the effect of different environmental factors faced by minority students, specifically their segregation in early years of schooling, to explain the academic performance gap that existed once they reached the post-secondary level. Like previously reviewed studies, this study sound that minority students tend to live in segregated neighborhoods and attend segregated schools. This fact put minority students at a grave disadvantage at the post-secondary education level. For the research, student performance was tracked over a period of 6 years of 1331 public school students from the State of Georgia who enter the University of West Georgia in the Fall semester of 2001. Of the 1331 students in the study, 60% are female, 75.1% are white, 20.4% are black and the remaining students are Asian (1.1%), Hispanic (1.4%), Native American (0.4%) and multi-racial (1.7%). The average high school GPA is 3.01, and the average SAT scores are 502 for the verbal test, and 497 for the math.

The study by (Massey, 2006) reported that 2/3 of African American lived under conditions of high racial segregation, and that 2/3 of all African Americans attended minority dominant schools. Massey's study focused on the academic achievement of 3924 students entering 28 selective universities in the Fall semester of 1999. He surveys these freshmen and assembles a data set on social conditions in neighborhoods and high schools and finds that 'minority students from segregated backgrounds attended substandard schools, received lower quality instruction, were exposed to higher levels of disorder and violence, and were less prepared socially for campus life.' (Massey, 2006, 6) By looking at the reported performance of these students over their first three semesters in college, Massey concluded that segregation has a significant impact on student achievement. He estimated that going from total integration to total segregation would lower GPAs by about 0.13, and that taking segregated backgrounds into account reduces the performance gap, but doesn't completely eliminate it. He also predicts that, because his data is from highly selective schools, in general the effect will be worse.

The study by (Condron, 2009) found that the number one cause of the achievement gap between minority students and white students is racial segregation in the schools. This study cited the social and economic stratification (social capital) between black and white Americans as a barrier to student achievement in schools and later as adults. This research used 1st grade data from a longitudinal study of a pre-kindergarten cohort and found that segregated schools cause an elevated role in the academic achievement gap as well as in social class disparities. This study's approach to the research differed from most by looking at social class as it directly correlates with race as opposed to looking at race as a sole determining factor of socio-economic status.

This approach allowed the researcher to take into account that “children growing up in