This year, 2024, marks the 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision. Yet, decades after that momentous decision, U.S. public schools remain highly segregated by race and ethnicity.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) is one of the few federally funded mechanisms that directly addresses segregation in schools. Grantees who receive MSAP funding to develop or expand magnet programs are required to address school segregation in their grant goals by preventing, reducing, or eliminating minority group isolation, a condition in which students identifying as a racial minority constitute more than 50 percent of a school’s enrollment.

To support current and prospective MSAP grantees considering how best to combat minority group isolation in their respective districts, this brief highlights promising strategies for meeting minority group isolation goals. The brief draws from a review of research and the practical experiences of select MSAP grantees.