Racialized School Choices and Perceptions of Safety: New Multi-Racial Experimental Evidence from Parents and Students

• In Event: 2346 - Racism and Anti-Racism I

Abstract

Persistent school racial segregation, especially in cities without residential school assignment, begs the question: Does school racial demographics affect school choice preferences? This study is the first of its kind to answer this question using both parents and students, who are actively engaged in the choice process, and incorporating a racially diverse sample, a move beyond the White-Black choice framework. By employing an experimental vignette study with NYC eighth grade families, I uncover a deeper understanding of what causes our current patterns of school segregation. This vignette experiment reveals school racial demographics and racialized perceptions of safety influence school choices. Beyond school characteristics that individuals may associate with race (academic achievement, school and neighborhood safety, and visual cues of safety) race directly shapes how White and Asian parents and students, Latino parents, and Black students make their school choices. There is a clear racial hierarchy: White and Asian families prefer White schools over Black and Latino schools, Latino parents prefer Latino schools over Black schools; and Black students prefer Black schools over White schools. Black parents and Latino students, however, show no racial preferences in their school choices. Secondly, results reveal that Latino, White, and Asian parents have racialized perceptions of school safety. Even when viewing identical schools, they perceive schools with more Black students as more unsafe. These racialized perceptions of safety directly influence parents’ race-based school choices.

Author

• Chantal Annise Hailey, New York University