School segregation in Jefferson County and the affiliated Louisville metropolitan area, USA

Abstract

This article explores the spatiotemporal patterns of school segregation between blacks and whites in Jefferson County and its affiliated Louisville metropolitan area. The classical dissimilarity index and the GIS-oriented spatial segregation measure -S index are used to estimate school segregation based on public school enrollment data (1987 -2008). Findings call for the significance of measuring school segregation from a metropolitan-wide perspective rather than focusing on the urban school district alone. Also, results indicate that between-district segregation represents the majority of overall segregation in the entire Louisville metropolitan area. Most importantly, the GIS-based S Index enriches segregation studies by mapping the dynamic patterns of racial disparities while permitting a statistical estimate of segregation.

Mapping innovations in spatial demography

“…Chipman, Wright, Ellis, and Holloway (2012) highlight temporal shifts in racial diversity levels of neighborhoods in Chicago by race/ethnic group types, Cubbin et al (2012) highlight the relationship between healthy food accessibility and the levels of poverty in the community in Central California, and Huang and Meyer (2012) document the spatial distribution of medical care and insurance coverage issues as they pertain to Hispanic populations in South Texas. Zhang and Walker (2012) present a visual representation of localized school segregation in the Louisville, KY metropolitan area. Finally, Campbell and Sparks (2012) present estimates of county level poverty across the entire conterminous US.…”