Divergent Trends in Neighborhood and School Segregation in the Age of School Choice

Abstract

This study seeks to identify changes in neighborhood and school segregation during the age of rapidly expanding school choice. Prior to 1991, public-school choice was limited. While magnet schools existed and a number of interdistrict transfer programs were in place, few public-school students left their neighborhoods to receive an education. During the past 25 years, the number of public-school choice options has exploded. Today, more than 10% of public-school students attend either a charter school or a magnet school, and many of these schools of choice are concentrated in urban areas. In order to understand how the combination of demographic changes and the expansion of school choice have shaped neighborhoods and schools, this study provides an analysis of levels of racial/ethnic diversity and integration in the 100 most populous U.S. cities and their accompanying school districts. Results of this analysis demonstrate that levels of diversity have risen dramatically in most urban areas as well as in most school districts. Concurrently, an overwhelming majority of cities have experienced increases in neighborhood-level integration while a large majority of schools in their accompanying districts have become increasingly segregated. These divergent patterns in neighborhood and school segregation are cause for alarm and require the immediate attention of policymakers and the public.

Notes

1 Although there are countless definitions of integration that capture different phenomena, this definition is easily quantifiable and provides a useful framework for this study. It is important to acknowledge that true integration goes well beyond the act of proportionally distributing a population of people of different backgrounds. However, for the purposes of this study, I evaluate the baseline step of ensuring that people of different backgrounds are present in equal proportions as an indication of progress toward true integration. In effect, the definition of integration used in this report equates to the converse of segregation.

2 Throughout the rest of this paper, diversity denotes racial and ethnic diversity unless stated otherwise. Although diversity comes in many forms (e.g., socioeconomic and religious), the focus of this paper is on race and ethnicity.

3 Measuring segregation is a complex task. There is an ever-growing number of measures of segregation, each with its benefits and drawbacks. For a summary of segregation measures, see Reardon and Firebaugh (2002).

4 Prior research suggests that census tracts serve as appropriate approximations of neighborhoods and that tract-level data rarely deviate significantly from data representing other approximations of neighborhood boundaries (Sampson, 2012).

5 For the purposes of this study, I use four racial/ethnic subgroups: Asian, black, Hispanic, and white. Although the population of residents and students who identify in another category is significant, changes in categorization and data collection between 1990 and 2015 make it impossible to compare other racial and ethnic categories in a consistent and reliable framework. As a result, residents and students who identify as something other than Asian, black, Hispanic, or white are not considered here.

6 Following the lead of publications from the UCLA Civil Rights Project, I define intense segregation as spaces that are less than 10% white (Orfield, Ee, & Coughlan, 2017). I define spaces that are more than 90% white as white isolated. Spaces of extreme segregation include the combined numbers of intensely segregated and white isolated spaces. Basing these two categories of segregation on the proportion of the white population is intentional and meant to denote the white violence toward other racial and ethnic groups in our society that has created this system of segregation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ryan W. Coughlan

Ryan W. Coughlan is an assistant professor of sociology at Guttman Community College, CUNY, who studies the social context of schooling. Dr. Coughlan's research uses geospatial statistical methods to study school zoning practices, patterns of school segregation, educational outcomes, and social bonds between neighborhoods and schools. Along with his research on the social context of schooling, Dr. Coughlan has edited and authored books on the history of progressive education, the social foundations of education, and the sociology of education. His research has been featured in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and on NPR's All Things Considered. Dr. Coughlan earned his Ph.D. in Urban Systems with a concentration in Urban Education from Rutgers University, Newark.