A/HRC/11/36/Add.3 page 18 57. While many interlocutors expressed concern regarding the number of hate crimes in the United States, some NGOs highlighted that the government response has in general been more vigorous than in other countries.36 C. Education De facto school segregation 58. One of the most important decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court in the fight for racial equality was Brown v. Board of Education prohibiting school segregation. However, interlocutors pointed out that despite the end of de jure segregation and positive changes, particularly in the 1960-1980 period, the trend has since been reversed. The percentage of black students in predominantly minority schools, which was 77 percent in 1968 and decreased to 63 percent in 1988, had surged to 73 percent in 2005.37 Civil society organizations expressed concern at recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions – Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Directors – that ruled that race-conscious integration measures are unconstitutional. In the view of many NGOs, these race-conscious measures are a necessary measure to ensure racial integration and made an essential contribution to de-segregation of schools, particularly in the South. Some organizations also pointed out that the rise of segregation also has an impact on the quality of education received by students belonging to minorities. Furthermore, a concern was expressed that the Court may have abandoned the notion that racial diversity can be considered a compelling interest that justifies the use of race-based criteria. This view is present in the dissenting opinion of Justice Breyer in the Community Schools case.38 Achievement gaps 59. Civil society representatives highlighted that while the achievement gap between students belonging to minorities and white students has narrowed in the past years, it is still in a similar level to 1990. The introduction of the No Child Left Behind Act placed high emphasis on educational performance; however, interlocutors highlighted the negative incentives created by the Act and its disproportionate effects on minority children. In particular, it was argued that the focus on standardized performance tests that penalize schools that underperform creates an incentive for schools to push out low-performing, at-risk students – a group that is composed disproportionately of minorities – in order to improve the overall school performance. 36 See, for example, Human Rights First, The United States: 2008 Hate Crime Survey. 37 Gary Orfield and Chungmei Lee, 2007, Historical Reversals, Accelerating Resegregation, and the Need for New Integration Strategies. Available at http://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/ research/deseg/reversals_reseg_need.pdf. 38 U.S. Supreme Court, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, dissenting opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer.