Moving Toward Integration or Segregation? Racial Change in Suburban Public Schools

Abstract

Suburbs across the US are experiencing demographic shifts with consequences for suburban schools. While scholars have expressed concern about rising segregation among suburban public schools, we extend this work by examining changes in racial/ethnic school segregation across a typology of suburban municipalities in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metropolitan area between 2007 and 2018. Our findings are mixed- contingent on the measure of segregation employed. We find that Black-white and Hispanic-white segregation in mature suburbs is rising, but is at least in part driven by shifting demographics. The results suggest intra-suburban variation in segregation, highlighting the connection between race and neighborhood change.