Priced Out of Opportunity: How California's Housing Burden Impacts School Segregation and Black Student Achievement (Poster 22)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Thursday 5:25 p.m.
  In Poster Session: Resisting Marginalization: Narratives of Black Student Persistence and Empowerment Across Educational Spaces

Abstract

California's high housing costs and lack of affordable housing in affluent school districts lead low-income Black children to attend racially and socioeconomically segregated schools. Local policies and NIMBY attitudes limiting affordable housing in desirable neighborhoods perpetuate Black-White opportunity gaps. Grounded in critical race theory and the education debt model, this study used panel data regression to document relationships between housing affordability, Black-White segregation, and Black-White sixth-grade-level performance in math, English, and combined standardized tests. Findings indicate that a lack of affordable housing correlates with increased Black-White school segregation. As segregation increases, overall and math achievement disparities increase but fall by 13% and 21% if segregation decreases by one standard deviation. Hence, housing affordability directly contributes to test score gaps.

Author

• Cassandra R. Henderson, Sterling Heritage Consulting Group