City Lines, County Lines, Color Lines: An Analysis of School and Housing Segregation in Four Southern Metropolitan Areas, 1990-2010

• In Event: Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: Educational Policies Pursuing Equal Opportunity

Abstract

This study seeks to understand how district boundary lines and school desegregation policy impacted metropolitan school and housing segregation levels over the past two decades. Three different measures of segregation indicate that efforts to overcome the divisive nature of district boundary lines, in conjunction with comprehensive school desegregation policy, are related to unambiguous progress in combating school and housing segregation. Findings also reveal that, in some ways, school policy is housing policy: locales with city-suburban school desegregation plans report much faster declines in housing segregation than locales lacking such strategies. In a nation experiencing swift demographic transition, evidence from four southern metros emphasizes the on-going need for policies explicitly designed to equalize educational and life opportunities.

Author

• Genevieve Parker Siegel-Hawley, Virginia Commonwealth University