Full Citation
Title: Segregated neighborhoods, segregated schools: Do charters break a stubborn link?
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2021
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI: 10.1215/00703370-9000820
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: Residential and school segregation historically mirrored one another, with school segregation seen as simply reflecting residential patterns due to neighborhood-based school assignment policy. We argue that the relationship is circular, with school options also influencing residential outcomes. To explore this, we examine what happens when neighborhood and school options are decoupled via public school choice in the form of charter schools. We hypothesize that the expansion of charter schools could simultaneously lead to an increase in school segregation and a decrease in residential segregation. We test this hypothesis with data from the Census and the Common Core of Data in a national sample of over 1,500 metropolitan districts. We find that Black-White school segregation increased and residential segregation declined in response to increases in charter enrollment share from 2000 to 2010. In districts with charter schools, the average increase in charter enrollment share corresponded to a 12 percent increase in school segregation and 2 percent decline in residential segregation. We find no relationship between charter school expansion and school segregation between White and Hispanic students, perhaps because Hispanic students attend more racially diverse charters than White or Black students. White-Hispanic residential segregation did decline as charter enrollment increased. Our results demonstrate that educational policy is consequential for both school and neighborhood population processes. Decoupling these two contexts via public school choice results in their segregation patterns moving in opposite directions, rather than mirroring one another. Our findings also provide a cautionary lesson for unfettered expansion of choice without integration imperatives.
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Rich, Peter; Candipan, Jennifer; Owens, Ann
Periodical (Full): Demography
Issue: 2
Volume: 58
Pages: 471-498
Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Education, Housing and Segregation, Race and Ethnicity, Work, Family, and Time
Countries: