Although school desegregation was initiated to address a social inequity--segregated schooling was seen as stigmatizing blacks as a social group--research has focused primarily on desegregation's effects on black academic achievement and self-esteem. Two problems have made this research difficult: the ambiguity of the term "school desegregation" and the quality and characteristics of the research designs used to study it. In this meta-analysis of 19 desegregation studies prepared for the National Institute of Education, the effect size method is used. Results show that the effects of desegregation on verbal tests is significant as is the pooled verbal and math effect size, but the math test effect size is not significant. Analysis of white achievement gains in three of the studies shows that black gains relative to white gains are small, thus suggesting that black gains are not attributable to desegregation per se. Other factors affecting academic outcomes in desegregated settings--anxiety and threat, self-concepts and aspirations, peer comparison, expectations, peer relations, school effects, teachers, and students--have diverse effects on and are affected in diverse ways by desegregation. Although desegregated schooling has only a moderate positive effect on black achievement, desegregation is nevertheless a requisite if the social issue of interracial acceptance is to be addressed. (CMG)