A Systematic Review of Neighborhood and Institutional Relationships Related to Education

Abstract

This review explores the conceptualization and measurement of neighborhood and institutional relationships related to children's educational outcomes in neighborhood effects research. The review's analysis first summarizes early statements about neighborhood and school relationships within the field. The analysis next situates neighborhood and institutional components within a broader ecological context, relying heavily on Bronfenbrenner's ecosystems theory. A description of six emerging models of neighborhood and institutional relationships follows and serves to organize the 83 studies within this review. The analysis concludes with an assessment of the relative importance of neighborhoods and schools in a subset of studies that measure the effects of both. The analysis findings are contextualized with the author's identification of the major methodological complications particular to the joint estimation of neighborhood and institutional effects.

Community Schools: a Public Health Opportunity to Reverse Urban Cycles of Disadvantage

“…36 (pS61) Characteristics of neighborhoods such as racial and economic segregation and employment rates are commonly cited as explanations for the health and educational gaps between neighborhoods, but these relationships do not explain how neighborhoods affect these outcomes. 36,37,[43][44][45][46] In order to address this question, researchers in each sector have investigated several social processes that have been linked to both educational and health outcomes. [36][37][38][39][40][41][42] Education researchers have identified collective socialization, 38,[47][48][49] social control, 50 social capital, 48,[51][52][53][54] and differential occupational opportunity 45,48 as mechanisms through which neighborhoods affect educational outcomes.…”

Relocation Programs, Opportunities to Learn, and the Complications of Conversion

“…First, we must acknowledge that neighborhoods and schools share the same ecological organization; that is, they share a common basis for the constitution of their memberships and therefore partner to bring about social relationships, the development and dispersal of resources, and ultimately, learning behaviors and outcomes (O. Johnson, 2011). Using adequate measures of schools in models at the expense of neighborhoods, or vice versa, does not come close to accounting for the variability in educational outcomes that they together determine.…”

Between Neighbourhood and School: Geography and Education in the Netherlands

“…2002; Kauppinen 2008; Dupere et al . 2010; Johnson 2011). Two different hypotheses about the links between neighbourhood and school effects can be identified in the literature.…”

“…Scholars have called for more attention in neighbourhood effects research to be directed to the links between neighbourhood and school, and to the role of the school as a potential mechanism of the neighbourhood effect (Sampson et al 2002;Kauppinen 2008;Dupere et al 2010;Johnson 2011). Two different hypotheses about the links between neighbourhood and school effects can be identified in the literature.…”

“…Despite the obvious ties among neighbourhoods, schools and young people, relatively few studies examine neighbourhood and school effects together. In many models of neighbourhood effects it is clear that the school is implicitly thought of as part of the neighbourhood (Ellen & Turner 1997), or as Johnson (2011) points out ‘synonymous’ with the neighbourhood. However, this blurs the specifics of the neighbourhood and school and their potentially different meanings for young people's outcomes and fails to consider that many young people do not attend neighbourhood schools.…”