Two sides of same coin:The relationship between school and housing

segregation

Genevieve Siegel-HawleyVirginia Commonwealth University

“Parents, researchers, courts and others interested in school desegregation…have noted almost unanimously that school segregation and residential segregation are inextricably linked” (Denton, 1996, p. 795).

[In Raleigh and elsewhere] school policy and housing markets shaped each other so extensively that a line cannot be drawn between them (Benjamin, 2010, p. 227).

Flow of presentation

• Why school segregation matters• How the reciprocal school-housing

relationship works• Outcomes flowing from the reciprocal

relationship• General principles for leveraging the

relationship to promote integration

Separate is still unequal• Racially segregated, high poverty schools linked to:• Lower graduation rates • Significantly lower academic achievement• Fewer highly qualified teachers • High rates of teacher turnover • Less motivated peers • Diminished access to high quality curricula like AP

courses• Inadequate facilities and material resources • Lower levels of community and parental

involvement

Benefits of well-designed diverse schools

• Academic—higher achievement, higher graduation rates, heightened critical thinking skills, more complex problem solving, better discussions and high quality curricula

• Social—more cross-racial friendships, less likely to stereotype, reductions in prejudice

• Civic—more engaged citizens, better prepared for socially cohesive, democratic society

• Long term—perpetuation effects across life cycle

DYNAMICS OF SCHOOL-HOUSING RELATIONSHIP

School-related boundaries are the foundation of the relationship

Boundary lines, names and signals (Pearce, 1980; Orfield, 2001; Weiher, 1992)

I heard it through the grapevine

• Word of mouth spreads school reputations through informal networks of families, friends, acquaintances (Holme, 2002; Lareau, 2014; Roda & Wells, 2013; Rhodes & Deluca, 2014)

• For white, middle class families, reputations tightly linked to racial and socioeconomic makeup of schools and districts (Holme, 2002; Lareau, 2014)

• Simplistic school labeling systems (like A-F) make it much easier to communicate coded information about race/class (Dougherty, 2012)

Sounds like…

• “I remember when we were looking and I would say [that] we’re looking in this area and people would go, ‘yeah that’s a good school.” And I don’t even know what they know, but they probably just heard that’s a good school.” (Holme, 2002, p. 191)

• “We didn’t even look [for houses] there because the schools . . . they’re just bad. Everybody we know who lives in [that area], they all send their kids to private school.” (Holme, 2002, p. 193)

• “We just can’t move there. It’s far and the schools are all Cs and Ds…lots of poor kids.”

Looks like…

And…

One more thing…

Kidding. By contrast…

This is the last one…really.

OUTCOMESHousing Policy is School Policy, and Vice Versa

Housing policy is school policy (Schwartz, 2010)

• Montgomery, Maryland’s inclusionary zoning policy (decades-long requirement for developers to set aside 15% of new developments for low income families)

• Extra resources for high poverty schools ($2000 more per student)

• Which group of kids did better: low-income students attending high-opportunity schools because of the housing policy or low-income kids attending high poverty schools with extra resources?

Heather Schwartz (2010). Housing Policy is School Policy. Washington, DC: Century Foundation.

1990

2000

2010

White-Black/Black-White

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

Richmond-Henrico-Chesterfield

SchoolsBlock Groups

1990 2000 2010White-Black/Black-White

0.00

0.10

0.20

0.30

0.40

0.50

0.60

0.70

0.80

Louisville-Jefferson County

Dis

sim

ilari

ty In

dex

School policy is housing policy (Siegel-Hawley, 2013; M. Orfield, 2015)

Source: NCES’ CCD, 1992-1993, 1999-2000, 2008-2009; U.S. Census SF3, 1990, 2000, 2010.

Dynamics of Metropolitan School Desegregation Policy

• Few boundaries, similar reputations/labels; signals fade

• Perpetuation theory (Wells & Crain, 1994; Mickelson, 2011)

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Leveraging the school-housing relationship to promote diversity and reduce segregation

What should we do?• School policies– Bridge boundary lines and desegregate – Magnet schools– Nuanced school evaluation

• Housing policies– Fair share affordable housing throughout regions– Inclusionary zoning– Stabilize gentrifying neighborhoods

Above all, though, we need to bring the school and housing

worlds into conversation with one another. Happens very rarely.

What would it look like to have a coordinated approach to school and

housing segregation?