Published online in: AERA Open September 4, 2019
Kendra Taylor, Sanametrix Erica Frankenberg, Pennsylvania State University Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Virginia Commonwealth University The establishment of new school districts in predominantly White municipalities in the South is restructuring school and housing segregation in impacted countywide school systems. This article compares the contribution of school district boundaries to school and residential segregation in the Southern counties that experienced secession since 2000. Merging together several data sets, including Common Core of Data, census data, and shapefiles at multiple geographic scales, we measure segregation of public school students and the entire population over time. We show that school district secession is restructuring school segregation in the counties where secession is occurring, with segregation increasingly occurring because students attend different school districts. Additionally, in the most recent year of analysis, residents were increasingly stratified by race in different school districts. Segregation patterns differ substantially, however, depending on the history of secession in the county.
Read the news release, "Study: School District Secessions in the South Have Deepened Racial Segregation between School Systems" online here.
Read the full open-access study online here.
On whether to break up CCSD, community must ask: What’s best for the kids? Las Vegas Sun, December 18, 2022
The School Secession Movement Is Growing. That’s Bad News for Integration. The New Republic, October 15, 2019
Smaller communities are “seceding” from larger school districts. It’s accelerating school segregation. Vox, September 6, 2019
The new face of racial segregation: School "secession" CBS News, September 5, 2019
Study: 'Splinter' districts increase school segregation in the South Education Dive, September 4, 2019
Research Roundup, Chalkbeat, September 4, 2019
Study Finds Carving Up School Districts Worsens Segregation The New York Times (Via the Associated Press), September 4, 2019
School District Secessions Accelerate School Segregation U.S. News & World Report, September 4, 2019
What Happens When Communities Create Their Own New, Whiter School Districts The Huffington Post, September 4, 2019
Racial Segregation Grows as Southern Communities Splinter Into New Districts Education Week, September 4, 2019
Secessions Have Heightened the Racial Divide Between Southern School Districts, New Research Shows The 74 Million, September 4, 2019
When School Districts Secede Politico "Morning Education," September 4, 2019
Racial Segregation in the Southern Schools, School Districts, and Counties Where Districts Have Seceded
Watch as study co-author Erica Frankenberg discusses the findings and implications of this important study.