Geographies of Opportunity Amid Increasing Diversity: How Education and Housing Policies Shape Educational Access

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Advocacy, Governance, and Educational Opportunities

Abstract

This study examines the complex ways that education, housing, and growth management policies interact with each other to shape access to quality schools in diverse, suburban communities. We focus on the interaction between educational and place-based policies – school attendance zone design and implementation, affordable housing policies, and growth management tools – and the ways they foster or disrupt school segregation in Maryland. We find that re-zoning tools are not designed to achieve integration or address changing demographics. Instead, they are used to manage growth and address school capacity issues. For the most part, rezoning maintains the pre-rezoning demographic composition of schools.

Authors

• Ariel H Bierbaum, University of Maryland - College Park

• Gail Sunderman, University of Maryland