Unjust Deserts: How Geography Constrains Postsecondary Options

• In Event: The Role of Geography and Circumstance in College Choice

Abstract

Several studies focusing on the geography of college choice have been published in recent years with a focus on "education deserts."Our study goes beyond quantifying whether a student lives in an education desert by determining whether a higher education market contains a variety of institutions available to students of all ability levels and by creating clusters based on affordability and quality measures. We also add to the literature by leveraging open source data to calculate networked distances, i.e., drivable distances. This approach differs from the traditional “as the crow flies” method. Instead, our approach accounts for roads and traffic flows between a high school and the postsecondary institutions that are nearby (Hillman, 2017).

Authors

• Danielle Lowry, University of Pittsburgh

• Alberto Guzman-Alvarez, University of Pittsburgh

• Lindsay Coleman Page, University of Pittsburgh