1 Teachers College Record Volume 117, 120303, December 2015, 52 pages Copyright © by Teachers College, Columbia University 0161-4681 The Effect of High School Socioeconomic, Racial, and Linguistic Segregation on Academic Performance and School Behaviors GREGORY PALARDY University of California, Riverside RUSSELL RUMBERGER University of California, Santa Barbara TRUMAN BUTLER University of California, Riverside Background/Context: The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education concluded that segregated schools were inherently unequal and therefore unlawful. That decision was not based solely upon the notion that segregated black schools were inferior in terms of academic instruction, curricular rigor, resources, etc., but also on research that showed segregating black children had negative social-emotional and behavioral consequenc- es. However, the vast majority of the research on school segregation over the past 50 years, has focused on its effects on academic achievement and opportunity to learn. As a result, little is known about the effects of school segregation on social-emotional and behavioral outcomes. This is a critical gap in the literature because other research indicates that school behaviors are as strong or stronger predictors of long-term educational, social, and employment outcomes as academic achievement. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of three forms of school segrega- tion—socioeconomic, ethnic/racial, and linguistic—on school behaviors (i.e., attendance, grade retention, and suspension) and academic performance (reading and math achievement test scores and GPA) in high school. The study also examines the degree to which each of three school mechanisms (school inputs, peer influences, and school practices) mediates the effects of segregation on student outcomes. Research Design: The study uses survey data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:02). A sequence of multilevel models are fit to the data to address the research objectives.