Racial Economic Segregation among U.S. Public Schools, 1991-2019 (Poster 19)

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

Despite its substantive importance as the strongest predictor of racial achievement gaps, racial economic segregation has been understudied in the previous literature on segregation. This paper describes trends in racial economic segregation over the last three decades and decomposes these trends into different geographic scales (e.g., between-state, between-district, and within-district segregation). Racial economic segregation has decreased since the late 1990s, yet Black students are still considerably isolated in schools with higher poverty rates. Between-district segregation has been the largest component of racial economic segregation, whereas within-district segregation has steadily grown during the last three decades. Findings from the present study suggest the imperativeness of inter-district policy remedies while also highlighting intra-district policy needs for promoting student diversity across schools in the district.

Author

• Heewon Jang, University of Alabama