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, as Professor Roslyn Mickelson demonstrates compellingly in her NCSD Research Brief, The Reciprocal Relationship Between Housing and School Integration.
PRRAC works to integrate residential areas and support community-led efforts to integrate schools by race and socioeconomic status in order to break the cycle of mutually-reinforcing housing and school-based segregation.
You can check out our explainer for upcoming projects and the history of our housing-school nexus work here. For more information on PRRAC’s work to support school integration, please visit our School Diversity page.
PRRAC Publications and Resources
- “Long Island High School Students Advocate for Housing and School Integration” by Elaine Gross (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
- Excerpt: “Between the Lines” (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
- “Q&A: Epic Theatre Ensemble’s Between the Lines Explores Housing and School Segregation” (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
- “The Policy Possibilities to Confront the Racial Impacts of Gentrification” by Chloe Latham Sikes & Terrance L. Green (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
- “An Alternative Measure of Student Performance to Help Parents Evaluate Schools” by Tom Brown (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
- “Confronting ‘White Island’ School Districts” by Erika Wilson (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
- “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)
- “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)
- “Prioritizing Educational Equity and School Integration in San Francisco’s Affordable Housing Strategies” by Natalie Spievack (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
- “Tackling School and Housing Segregation Through Revisions to AFFH” by Elizabeth DeBray, Kara S. Finnigan, Andrew J. Greenlee, & Heidi Kurniawan (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
- “Defining Segregation” by Anika Singh Lemar (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
- “Sharing the Wealth: How Regional Finance and Desegregation Plans Can Enhance School Desegregation and Promote Educational Equity” by John Brittain, Larkin Willis, Peter W. Cookson, Jr., & Michael Alves (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
- “School Desegregation, School Rezoning, and Growth Management in Two Maryland Counties” by Ariel H. Bierbaum & Gail L. Sunderman (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
- “The Bridges Collaborative: Centering Practitioners in the Fight for Integration” by Stefan Lallinger (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
- Connecting Housing and School Integration – Federal and State Policy Levers (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
- “Connecting Housing and School Integration Research, Practice, and Policy” by Kara S. Finnigan & Philip Tegeler (Oct – Dec 2021 P&R Issue)
- Using Fair Housing Planning as a Tool to Address Schooling Inequities (Kara S. Finnigan, Elizabeth DeBray, Andrew J. Greenlee, Megan Haberle, & Heidi Kurniawan, September 2021)
- “Gentrification, Demographic Change, and the Challenges of Integration” by Kfir Mordechay (Jan-Apr 2021 P&R Issue)
- Mixed Income Neighborhoods and Integrated Schools: Linking HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative with the Department of Education’s Magnet Schools Assistance Program (Philip Tegeler & Laura Gevarter, March 2021)
- A Steady Habit of Segregation (NAACP LDF, PRRAC, Open Communities Alliance, Sillerman Center, October 2020)
- State Support for Local School Construction: Leveraging Equity and Diversity (PRRAC, August 2020)
- Immigrant Integration and Immigrant Segregation: The Relationship Between School and Housing Segregation and Immigrants’ Future in the U.S. (Martha Cecilia Bottia, April 2019)
- Housing and Schools: The Importance of Engagement for Educators and Education Advocates (NEA & PRRAC, April 2019)
- Coordinated Action on School and Housing Integration: The Role of State Government (Megan Haberle & Philip Tegeler, March 2019)
- Coordination of Community Systems and Institutions to Promote Housing and School Integration (Philip Tegeler and Micah Herskind, November 2018)
- Housing and Educational Opportunity: Characteristics of Local Schools Near Families with Federal Housing Assistance (Ingrid Gould Ellen & Keren Horn, July 2018)
- Deconstructing Segregation in Syracuse? The Fate of I-81 and the Future of One of New York State’s Highest Poverty Communities (Anthony Armstrong & Make Communities, May 2018)
- Changing the Perception of Pasadena Unified School District Through an Innovative Realtor Outreach Program (PRRAC & NCSD, April 2018)
- Disrupting the Reciprocal Relationship Between Housing and School Segregation (Philip Tegeler & Michael Hilton, November 2017)
- Issue Brief No. 5: Linking Housing And School Integration Policy: What Federal, State And Local Governments Can Do (NCSD & PRRAC, March 2015 )
- The ‘Compelling Government Interest’ in School Diversity: Rebuilding the Case for an Affirmative Government Role (Philip Tegeler, July 2014)
- Do Federally Assisted Households Have Access to High Performing Public Schools? (Ingrid Gould Ellen & Keren Mertens Horn, November 2012)
- Diverse Charter Schools (PRRAC & Century Foundation, May 2012)
- Finding Common Ground: Coordinating Housing and Education Policy to Promote Integration (PRRAC & NCSD, October 2011).
- New Homes, New Neighborhoods, New Schools: A Progress Report on the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program (PRRAC & the Baltimore Regional Housing Campaign, October 2009)
- Bringing Children Together: Magnet Schools and Public Housing Redevelopment (PRRAC-Charles Hamilton Institute for Race & Justice, 2009)
Other Resources/Materials
- Comment Letter: Prioritizing Educational Equity and School Integration in San Francisco’s Housing Element (Housing and Education Advocates, February 2022)
- Comment Letter: Additional Recommendations for Fiscal Year 2023 Department of Education Budget (PRRAC et al, December 2021)
- How Real Estate Agents Can (and Should) Promote Diverse Schools (a project in collaboration with the National Association of Realtors©, June 2021)
- PRRAC & CLPHA, Housing Mobility and School Integration HousingIs 2020 PowerPoint Presentation
- Jennifer Jellison Holme, Erica Frankenberg, Joanna Sanchez, Kendra Taylor, Sarah De La Garza, Michelle Kennedy, “Subsidized Housing and School Segregation: Examining the Relationship Between Federally Subsidized Affordable Housing and Racial and Economic Isolation in Schools,” Education Policy Analysis Archives (November 2020)
- Planning for Equity Policy Guide (American Planning Association, May 2019)
- Washington, DC DRAFT Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing (Access to Proficient Schools Section) (June 2018)
- Briefing Report: Public Education Funding Inequity: In an Era of Increasing Concentration of Poverty and Resegregation (US Commission on Civil Rights, January 2018) – includes a chapter on “How Housing Policy Impact Educational Opportunity”
- Draft Appendix to AFFH Guidebook – “Location of Proficient Schools and School Assignment Policies” (December 2016/never published)
- HUD-ED-DOT Joint Letter on Diverse Schools and Communities (June 2016)
- Confronting School and Housing Segregation in the Richmond Region (2017)
- HUD Housing-Schools Report Breaking Down Barriers: Housing, Neighborhoods, and Schools of Opportunity (May 2016)
- Department of Housing & Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research, “Breaking Down Barriers: Housing, Neighborhoods, and Schools of Opportunity” (April 2016)
- Charter Schools, Gentrification, and Weighted Lotteries (Shelterforce, February 2016)
- Coordinating Housing and Education Policy to Support Racial and Economic Integration: a February 3, 2011 Roundtable at HUD. In early 2011, PRRAC convened officials from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Education, and the Department of Justice to explore ways in which the two agencies might work collaboratively to advance school and housing integration, recognizing that these two systems interact in highly interdependent ways.
