Schools Un/Bounded: An Analysis of the Bonds Between Schools and Neighborhoods

• In Event: Space and Place in Urban Educational Policy: Restructuring, Consolidation, and Gentrification

Abstract

The school choice movement has led to an increase in the number of children attending schools beyond the boundaries of their communities. Disconnecting public schools from neighborhoods impacts children and entire communities. Some theoretical and political discussions suggest that positive outcomes are associated with severing the school-neighborhood bond, while others indicate that the result of such actions are harmful to children and communities. This quantitative geostatistical study maps census and community variables against school-level survey and outcomes data and demonstrates that there is a significant positive relationship between neighborhood collective efficacy and academic achievement. The results of this analysis have immense policy implications in an age of school choice education reforms that are breaking the bonds of neighborhood and school.

Author

• Ryan Coughlan, Rutgers University