Do Irregularly Shaped School Attendance Zones Contribute to Racial Segregation or Integration?

ABSTRACT: This research investigates if and how much the shapes of school attendance zones contribute to racial segregation in schools. We find that the typical school attendance zone is relatively compact and resembles a square-like shape. Compact zones typically draw children from local residential areas, and since local areas are often racially homogeneous, this suggests that high levels of racial segregation in the largest school districts are largely structured by existing residential segregation. Still, this study finds that the United States contains some attendance zones with highly irregular shapes-some of which are as irregular as the most irregular Congressional District. Although relatively rare, attendance zones that are highly irregular in shape almost always contain racially diverse s

SUBMITTER: Saporito S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5553557 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature