The Geography of Inequality

Abstract

Persistent school segregation does not only mean that children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds attend different schools, but their schools are also unequal in their performance. This study documents nationally the extent of disparities in school performance between schools attended by whites and Asians compared to blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans. It further examines the geography of school inequality in two ways. First it analyzes the segregation of students between different types of school profiles based on racial composition, poverty and metropolitan location. Second it estimates the independent effects of these and other school and school district characteristics on school performance, identifying which aspects of school segregation are the most important sources of disadvantage. A focus on schools at the bottom of the distribution as in No Schools Left Behind would not ameliorate wide disparities between groups that are found run across the whole spectrum of school performance.

Structural racism as the fundamental cause of the academic achievement gap

“…Thus, an additional factor linking race to educational performance in the United States is residential (Burdick-Will et al, 2011;Sharkey, 2010;Sharkey & Elwert, 2011;Sharkey, Tirado-Strayer, Papachristos, & Raver, 2012;Wodtke, Harding, & Elwert, 2011) and school segregation (Benner & Crosnoe, 2011;Bennett, 2011;Berends & Peñaloza, 2010;Clayton, 2011;Condron, Tope, Steidl, & Freeman, 2014;Hanselman & Fiel, 2017;Lleras, 2008b;Logan, Minca, & Adar, 2012;Mickelson, Bottia, & Lambert, 2013;Palardy et al, 2015). Dramatic ongoing residential segregation in the United States along with the unraveling of laws allowing for race based school placements means that racial segregation continues to be a defining feature of the US educational system (Logan, Minca, & Adar, 2012;Reardon & Owens, 2014). There is little question that minority students attend schools with more minority students, fewer resources, and lower achievement; for example, nearly 50% of Black students attend schools below the 30th percentile in achievement, compared to only about 15% of White students (Logan, Minca, & Adar 2012).…”

“…Dramatic ongoing residential segregation in the United States along with the unraveling of laws allowing for race based school placements means that racial segregation continues to be a defining feature of the US educational system (Logan, Minca, & Adar, 2012;Reardon & Owens, 2014). There is little question that minority students attend schools with more minority students, fewer resources, and lower achievement; for example, nearly 50% of Black students attend schools below the 30th percentile in achievement, compared to only about 15% of White students (Logan, Minca, & Adar 2012). However, given that school quality is often measured by an aggregate of student test scores, aggregate disparities between schools does not necessarily reflect school quality due to the selection of different types of students into different schools.…”

The Perceptions of Private and Suburban Public Schools among Middle Class Urban Parents: Evidence from Albany, New York<br /> &nbsp;

“…Because social networks in the U.S. are heavily segregated by race and social class, parents often end up in communities and schools that mirror their social backgrounds (Lareau, 2014;Sattin-Bajaj & Roda, 2018). Meanwhile, most white parents view majority black and Hispanic schools as undesirable (Billingham & Hunt, 2016), and segregation by race in America's public schools has increased markedly since the 1980s (Johnson & Nazaryan, 2019;Logan, Minca, & Adar, 2012). Relatedly, the convenience of the school's location, behavioral and discipline standards, and the perceived safety of the school are all primary factors in school decisions (Lareau, 2014;Schneider, Teske, & Marschall, 2000).…”

Social Enterprises, Venture Philanthropy and the Alleviation of Income Inequality

“…Inequality gives individuals unequal access to opportunities, which results in a series of severe social problems (Wilkinson and Pickett 2009 for a review). As such, inequality stems from the local context, it has macro-level consequences and it shapes micro-level behavior (Deichmann 1999;Logan et al 2012; Redding and Venables 2004).…”