Variation in the Local Segregation of Latino Children—Role of Place, Poverty, and Culture

Abstract

Purpose: Does the rising share of Latino students in US schools help to integrate previously White campuses or exacerbate racial and economic segregation over time? This article details trends in the segregation of Latino children enrolled in elementary schools, 2000-2015, then examines how evolving patterns differ among the nation's school districts. Research Methods: We compiled enrollment data from schools, merging census data on the demographic and economic attributes of residents inside the boundaries of each district. Changes in the interaction and entropy measures of segregation are reported, illuminating levels of Latino segregation between districts and among schools within districts. Findings: Latino children were less likely to attend elementary schools with White peers in 2015 relative to 2000, stemming in part from growing Latino enrollments. The isolation of Latino children within certain schools inside districts did not change on average. Local variation in segregation levels is associated with the income of residents within districts, along with their nativity and home language. Just 13% of the nation's districts enroll sufficient counts of Latino and White children to advance integration among constituent schools. Implications: Rising Latino enrollment in once lilywhite schools does advance racial integration. But many Latino children enter increasingly segregated school districts in which poor students are isolated from middle-class peers. In the absence of interdistrict integration efforts, little progress to integrate Latino children will be possible.The segregation of poor Latino children in separate schools, distant from middle-class or racially diverse peers, works to reinforce disparities in children's

Drawn Into Policy: A Systematic Review of School Rezoning Rationales, Processes, and Outcomes

“…However, even among these race-conscious approaches, diversity was narrowly defined by a Black-White racial binary. With the exception of Bartels and Donato’s study (2009), there was little attention paid to Latinx communities, who increasingly reside in suburban areas and disproportionately attend racially isolated schools (Fuller et al, 2022). Latinx students also trail other racial/ethnic groups in educational attainment (Conchas et al, 2012).…”

Finding Integrated Schools? Latino Families Settle in Diverse Suburbs, 2000–2015

“…We earlier calculated, based on CCD, that the percentage of elementary-age children deemed eligible for FRPM climbed from 28 percent in 1998 to 50 percent in 2015. But the Census Bureau's supplemental index of child poverty (taking cash transfers to families into account) fell from 21 percent to 17 percent nationwide (for detail, see Fuller et al 2022). Thus, a portion of any decline in the index stems from the noise emanating from the FRPM measure.…”

“…Empirical findings rest in part on whether one focuses on segregation between school districts or across schools within districts. Education leaders in the United States tend to focus on the latter, given that they sit in local districts, along with judicial constraints on crossdistrict integration (for a review, Fuller et al 2022). Yet to identify the extent to which Latino families settle in particular districts, or Whites leave diversifying areas (Frankenberg et al 2023, this issue), we must track segregation levels between districts as well.…”

“…This becomes highly relevant in suburbs hosting varying mixes of poor and middling La-s u b u r b a n i n e q u a l i t y r s f : t h e r u s s e l l s a g e f o u n d a t i o n j o u r n a l o f t h e s o c i a l s c i e n c e s 11. We earlier detailed the intensifying isolation of middle-class from poor students between 2000 and 2015 (Fuller et al 2022). This article also details how liberalized federal eligibility for free or reduced-price meals, the conventional measure of student social-class status, tends to inflate estimated levels of economic segregation.…”

“…We estimated the probability that a FRPM-eligible child interacts with nonpoor peers for all children, regardless of ethnic membership (race-specific data on FRPM eligibility are not available) (Owens, Reardon, and Jencks 2016). We have detailed elsewhere how use of FRPM modestly overstates detected declines in the poor-nonpoor exposure index (Fuller et al 2022). 15 Demographic attributes of residents living within the bounds of school districts likely account for levels of Latino segregation or change over time.…”