The Role of Noncontiguous Attendance Zones in Shaping School Populations: A Case Study of Tucson and Fort Bend

• In Event: Understanding the Changing Relationships Between School Attendance Boundaries and Student Populations

Abstract

Objectives: Noncontiguous school attendance zones, or multipart zones comprising more than one polygon, are particularly interesting due to their irregular shape and their connection to school desegregation efforts. This case study seeks to investigate how noncontiguous attendance zones have affected the racial composition of school populations in two Southwestern school districts.

Perspective: Historically, noncontiguous school attendance zones have been known to both segregate students along racial lines (Penick v. Columbus Board of Education, 1977) and have been encouraged by the federal courts as a desegregation method (Davison, 1995). Today, noncontiguous zones may remain a promising method for creating diverse school populations, as they assign students from segregated residential areas to attend the same school. However, it is unclear how districts have altered their noncontiguous boundaries and what effect those boundaries have had on school populations over time.

Data and Methods: To investigate the longitudinal effects of noncontiguous boundaries, we conduct a case study of Tucson Unified School District, Arizona and Fort Bend Independent School District, Texas. Tucson created noncontiguous boundaries as part of a court-ordered desegregation plan that began in 1978, while Fort Bend voluntarily created noncontiguous boundaries in the 1990s. These districts were selected out of relatively few with noncontiguous zones in order to compare outcomes resulting from mandatory and voluntary zoning decisions.

Our analysis utilizes LSABs data from 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020 along with corresponding school enrollment data from NCES Common Core of Data and block group demographic data from the U.S. Census. It also includes document analysis to understand how noncontiguous boundaries were developed and changed over time.

Within each district, we analyze how the student populations of schools with noncontiguous boundaries compare to those of schools with contiguous boundaries, and we measure levels of racial diversity within each type of school. We also analyze schools whose boundaries have changed from contiguous to noncontiguous and vice versa, comparing student enrollments before and after each change.

Preliminary Results: Both Tucson and Fort Bend have noncontiguous elementary, middle, and high school zones. In Tucson, the number of noncontiguous boundaries has decreased from 15 in 1990 to nine in 2020, while Fort Bend has seen an increase in noncontiguous school zones from two in 2000 to four in 2020. Despite this difference, initial comparison of average school diversity scores (Theil, 1972) reveals similar trends in both districts. Across all years, schools with noncontiguous boundaries are more racially diverse than schools in the same district with contiguous boundaries (Table 1). However, in both districts, the average diversity scores of schools with noncontiguous zones has decreased since 2010 and become closer to the average diversity level of schools with contiguous zones. Additional analysis will explore reasons for these declines, including residential demographic patterns and locations of boundary lines.

Significance: Noncontiguous school zones can certainly serve to desegregate; however, like all attendance zones, the effect of noncontiguous zones on school populations is constantly changing. Noncontiguous boundaries are an important zoning option to consider, but these boundary designs require constant evaluation and in order to maintain desegregative effects.

Authors

• Sarah Asson, The Pennsylvania State University - University Park

• Hope Elizabeth Bodenschatz, The Pennsylvania State University