Suburban Jurisdictional Boundaries: How Policies Contribute to Racial and Economic Segregation Between School Districts

• In Event: Segregation, Gentrification, and Inequality in Public Schooling

Abstract

The purpose of this sequential mixed methods case study is to describe and compare how housing and school district policies of two suburban school districts within an affluent Northeast county function together to impact racial and economic demographic segregation between these school districts from 1960-2014. One school district stayed relatively white and affluent, while the other school district transformed dramatically to a diverse district. Findings indicate zoning and housing policy in turn creates the boundary and produces the student body for the school district, not the other way around. Yet the decision of school districts to adopt a diverse identity does have an impact on marketing the space to diverse populations and vice versa.

Author

• Heather Bennett, The Pennsylvania State University