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.
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