This study uses national data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study to model educational inequality as a feedback process among course placement, student engagement, and academic achievement, separately for students in schools with high and low percentages of African American students. Results find strong effects of placement, engagement, and performance on one another over time and across both school types. However, the results also show that racial segregation is detrimental to the overall learning process for students between 8th and 10th grade. The author concludes that White and African American students in predominantly Black, particularly urban, schools are significantly disadvantaged at each point of the learning process compared to students in other school types. (Contains 4 tables, 1 figure, and 1 note.)