Educational Opportunity Amid Urban Revitalization: Perceptions from Long-term Resident Parents and Children

• In Event: Equity in the Crosshairs: Leadership, Closure, and Advocacy in Contentious Times

Abstract

Urban revitalization can reshape educational opportunities, including schools and informal sites such as neighborhood spaces for children. However, these initiatives often risk displacement and exclusion of historically marginalized and long-term resident families, limiting access to these opportunities. Drawing on parent (n=47) and child (n=18) interviews in a Detroit neighborhood undergoing revitalization to understand revitalization’s disparate impacts, we find that residents across race, class, and housing lines converge in observations of neighborhood school closures and limited activities for children but diverge in perceptions of belonging, future opportunities, and displacement risk. These points of convergence and contestation highlight potential levers that can help urban and school leaders co-design revitalization policies that prevent displacement and support family-centered neighborhood-school ecosystems.

Authors

• Tara Blagg, University of Southern California

• Bianca Burch, Wayne State University

• Kara S. Finnigan, University of Michigan

• Huriya Jabbar, University of Southern California

• DeMarcus A Jenkins, University of Pennsylvania

• Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Wayne State University

• Jeremy L. Singer, University of Michigan-Flint

• Tyra Timm, University of Texas at Austin