School Racial Segregation and Differences in Exposure to Opportunities to Learn

• In Event: Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Examining Racial/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Inequality

Abstract

Previous research demonstrates that minority students systematically attend schools with lower levels of academic achievement and financial resources, but these are relatively poor proxies for the actual learning opportunities experienced at school. We consider average yearly achievement growth as a better indicator of school learning opportunities and ask whether there is an additional dimension of racial disparity in exposure to “high growth” school environments. In the population of California elementary schools, we find racial disparities for Black and Hispanic students in exposure to high growth school environments above and beyond their concentration in low-performing schools. Our findings provide new evidence for the long-standing proposal that segregation exacerbates educational inequalities by exposing students to differences in school quality.

Authors

• Paul Hanselman, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Jeremy Fiel, University of Wisconsin - Madison