By Erika Wilson (click here for the PDF) Across the country, school district boundary lines pave the way for lawful forms of racial segregation and inequality in public schools. Indeed, most racial segregation in schools occurs between school districts rather than within school districts (EdBuild, 2019). White student segregation is especially ubiquitous. In many racially … [Read more...] about “Confronting ‘White Island’ School Districts” by Erika Wilson (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
Housing/Education Nexus
There is a reciprocal relationship between residential segregation and segregated schools. Federal housing policy and historical patterns of housing segregation have created stark divides between wealthy, largely white communities with high property values and predominantly minority communities with more limited resources. Due to the local nature of school funding, communities with higher property value can generate more funding for schools, leading to more comprehensive educational resources and higher test scores, which in turn drives up the price of homes in the school district. In this way the socioeconomic and racial divisions between neighborhoods and schools perpetuate themselves in a vicious cycle. Just as residential and school segregation are mutually reinforcing, so too are the effects of residential and school integration. Children attending integrated schools are more likely to live in integrated neighborhoods as adults, and send their own children to integrated schools. The effects are reciprocal, working positively in both directions.
For more on PRRAC’s work on this topic, visit our page on the Housing-School Nexus.
“Ratings, Rankings, and Segregation: The Failure of Measurement and Accountability in Education” by Jack Schneider (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
By Jack Schneider (click here for the PDF) For the past two decades, as a result of No Child Left Behind and its successor legislation, the Every Student Succeeds Act, unprecedented data have been made available to the public. These data include much that might inform interested parties about the performance of schools. Yet, at present, measurement and accountability … [Read more...] about “Ratings, Rankings, and Segregation: The Failure of Measurement and Accountability in Education” by Jack Schneider (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
“Policy Change Using a Regional Equity Framework” by Kara S. Finnigan & Jennifer Jellison Holme (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
By Kara S. Finnigan & Jennifer Jellison Holme (click here for the PDF) As we argue in our book, Striving in Common: A Regional Equity Framework for Urban Schools (Harvard Education Press, 2018), many of the inequities entrenched in the US educational system are regional in nature, rooted in historic patterns of segregation and perpetuated and deepened by competitive … [Read more...] about “Policy Change Using a Regional Equity Framework” by Kara S. Finnigan & Jennifer Jellison Holme (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
“Using Research Evidence to Address Segregation: A Racial Equity Perspective” by David Kirkland (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
By David Kirkland (click here for the PDF) Prior to this year and since 1954, the most optimistic of us clung to the belief that the tides of history were pulling the nation, if not the world, forward, breaking down the invisible boundaries that held in place systems of confinement—the gross concentration of vulnerability divided from the exclusive freedoms enjoyed by the … [Read more...] about “Using Research Evidence to Address Segregation: A Racial Equity Perspective” by David Kirkland (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
“New Urban Institute Report and Data Tool Highlight Racially Unequal School Boundaries Across the US” by Tomás Monarrez (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
By Tomás Monarrez (click here for the PDF) On October 19th, President Biden signed the Executive Order on White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans. The order acknowledges the role of systemic racial injustice as a key driver of existing racial inequality in educational and economic achievement, and it … [Read more...] about “New Urban Institute Report and Data Tool Highlight Racially Unequal School Boundaries Across the US” by Tomás Monarrez (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
