Educational and sociological scholars frequently debate how racial dynamics between neighborhoods and their public schools can maintain or exacerbate educational inequality. Drawing on secondary data from the Georgia Department of Education, 2000 Census Bureau, and attendance boundaries for metro Atlanta public high schools, this study investigates the following: To what degree do Atlanta-area racial and ethnic segregation patterns in public secondary schools reflect those in residential catchment areas? I find that in areas with the greatest racial heterogeneity and the greatest potential for diversity in educational settings, the public schools least reflect the racial composition of the neighborhoods. These results can inform policy makers and administrators on neighborhood and school-level factors which have implications for minimizing ethnoracial differences in education.
AlbaR.LoganJ. (1993). Minority proximity to whites in suburbs: An individual level analysis of segregation. American Journal of Sociology, 98, 1388-1427.
2.
BoboL.ZubrinskyC. (1996). Attitudes on residential integration: Perceived status differences, mere in-group preference, or racial prejudice. Social Forces, 74, 883-909.
3.
ClotfelterC. T. (2001). Are Whites still fleeing? Racial patterns and enrollment shifts in urban public schools, 1987-1996. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 20, 199-221.
DuBoisW. E. B. (1903). The souls of Black folk. New York, NY: Pocket.
6.
FrankenbergE.LeeC. (2002). Race in American public schools: Rapidly resegregating school districts. Cambridge, MA: The Civil Rights Project, Harvard University.
7.
GoldsmithP. R. (2009). Schools or neighborhoods or both? Race and ethnic segregation and educational attainment. Social Forces, 87, 1913-1942.
8.
GozdziakE. (2005). New immigrant communities and integration. In GozdziakE.MartinS. (Eds.), Beyond the gateway: Immigrants in a changing America (pp. 3-18). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
9.
HolmeJ. (2002). Buying homes, buying schools: School choice and the social construction of school quality. Harvard Educational Review, 72, 177-205.
10.
IsenbergA. (2004). Downtown America: A history of the place and the people who made it. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
11.
JencksC.PhillipsM. (1998). The Black–White test score gap. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
12.
JohnsonH. B. (2006). The American dream and the power of wealth: Choosing schools and inheriting inequality in the land of opportunity. New York, NY: Routledge.
13.
KruseK. M. (2005). White flight: Atlanta and the making of modern conservatism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
14.
LankfordH. E. S.WyckoffJ. (2001). Who would be left behind by enhanced private school choice?Journal of Urban Economics, 50, 288-312.
15.
LevinB. (1999). Race and school choice. In SugarmanS.KemererF. (Eds.), School choice and social controversy (pp. 266-299). Washington, DC: Brookings Institute Press.
16.
LobaoL.HooksG.TickamyerA. R. (2007). The sociology of spatial inequality. Albany: State University of New York Press.
17.
MasseyD. S.DentonN. A. (1993). American apartheid: Segregation and the making of the underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
18.
NoreischK. (2007). School catchment area evasion: The case of Berlin, Germany. Journal of Education Policy, 22(1), 69-90.
19.
OlzakS.ShanahanS. (1994). School desegregation, interracial exposure and antibusing activity in contemporary urban America. American Journal of Sociology, 100, 196-241.
20.
OrfieldG. (1996). Segregated housing and school resegregation. In OrfieldG.EatonS. E. (Eds.), Dismantling desegregation: The quiet reversal of Brown v. Board of Education (pp. 291-330). New York, NY: New Press.
21.
OrfieldG.AshkinazeC. (1991). The closing door: Conservative policy and Black opportunity. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
22.
OrfieldG.EatonS. E. (1996). The growth of segregation: African Americans, Latinos, and unequal education. In OrfieldG.EatonS. E. (Eds.), Dismantling desegregation: The quiet reversal of Brown v. Board of Education (pp. 53-71). New York, NY: New Press.
23.
OrfieldG.GordonN. (2001). Schools more separate: Consequences of a decade of resegregation. Cambridge, MA: The Civil Rights Project, Harvard University.
24.
OwensM. L.RichM. J. (2002). Is strong incorporation enough? Black empowerment and the fate of Atlanta’s low-income Blacks. In BrowningR. P.MarshallD. R.TabbD. H. (Eds.), Racial politics in American cities. (pp. 203-226) Boston, MA: Addison Wesley Educational.
25.
ParsonsE.ChalkleyB.JonesA. (2000). School catchments and pupil movements: A case study in parental choice. Educational Studies, 26(1), 33-48.
26.
ReardonS.YunJ. (2001). Suburban racial change and suburban school segregation, 1987-1995. Sociology of Education, 74, 79-101.
27.
RenzulliL.EvansL. (2005). School choice, charter schools, and White flight. Social Problems, 52, 398-418.
28.
SaporitoS. (2003). Private choices, public consequences: Magnet school choice and segregation by race and poverty. Social Problems, 50, 181-203.
29.
SaporitoS.SohoniD. (2006). Coloring outside the lines: Racial segregation in public schools and their attendance boundaries. Sociology of Education, 79, 81-105.
30.
SaporitoS.SohoniD. (2007). Mapping educational inequality: Concentrations of poverty among poor and minority students in public schools. Social Forces, 85, 1227-1253.
31.
SecadaW. G.Chavez-ChavezR.GarciaE.MunozC.OaksJ.Santiago-SantiagoI.SlavinR. (1998). No more excuses: The final report of the Hispanic dropout project. Madison: Wisconsin University, Department of Curriculum and Instruction.
ValenzuelaA. (1999). Subtractive schooling: U.S.–Mexican youth and the politics of caring. New York: State University of New York Press.
35.
WainerA. (2006). The new Latino South and the challenge to American public education. International Migration, 44, 129-165.
36.
WellsA. S.HolmeJ. J.RevillaA. J.AtandaA. K. (2009). Both sides now: The story of school desegregation’s graduates. Oakland: University of California Press.
