Educational Districting’s Impact on Racial Integration: A Statewide Analysis

• In Event: Geography and Spatial Analysis

Abstract

Utilizing cutting-edge geospatial and redistricting technologies, I investigate the impacts of redistricting at the school district and attendance zone level. Attendance zones are nested within school districts and determine school assignment within a school district. First analyzing the existing boundaries then generating alternative districting plans, I explore if current boundaries are giving a specific racial group an educational advantage over another. This “educational gerrymandering” has normative implications as well as empirical realities for student achievement disparities within a state. I focus specifically on 331 school districts and 770 attendance zones which constitute the educational boundaries in Minnesota. Comparing these geographic realities to alternative computer-generated boundaries, I expect to find that, due to histories of red-lining and segregatory politics, the school districts and attendance zones will be less racially representative of the underlying population than those computer-generated. A statewide analysis of these educational boundaries allows for data-rich analyses of racial disparities within Minnesota’s education system, including outlier analysis for Congressional Districts with disparate school district and attendance zone demographics. Even in attendance zones which are majority-minority, or majority-white, there are still opportunities for comparative balance across relevant covariates. I further provide other insights into Minnesota school-level districting, including the racial latitude available to districters while still maintaining equivalent student populations and compactness comparatively to current districts; leveraging the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group’s "GerryChain" Python library to build ensembles of educational districting plans using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods.

Author

• Cara Mae Nix