Study finds suburban school districts diversified since 2000, but urban districts saw more racial isolation
LAWRENCE — Even though Brown v. Board outlawed school segregation 70 years ago, American schools have remained segregated to a certain degree ever since. New research from the University of Kansas has found that school segregation is changing, especially in traditionally predominantly white suburban districts, but that racial isolation is increasing in urban districts.
The study, conducted by analyzing 2020 and 2000 U.S. Census Bureau and school enrollment data with the help of geographical mapping technology, shows that suburban districts across the country are not as predominantly white as they were 20 years prior, but that students of color are seeing more racial isolation in urban schools.
That doesn’t mean school segregation is getting better or worse, according to study lead author Bryan Mann, associate professor of educational leadership & policy studies at KU, just that it is changing.
“With this study, we used 2020 and 2000 census data and school enrollment data to see how things might have changed,” Mann said. “One of the biggest findings is suburban districts, which are typically viewed as white flight districts, are clearly seeing more diversity. But students of color in urban districts are seeing more isolation.”
The findings can help guide research and policy intended to address inequity in American schools.
“Typically, conversations about equity and equality focus on urban areas. I think it’s important that we don’t just consider inequality as an urban issue,” Mann said.
The study, co-written with Ryan Fitzpatrick and Daniah Hammouda, doctoral candidates in educational leadership & policy studies at KU, was published in the journal American Educational Research Association Open.
Mann said the study’s purpose was to provide an updated look at how segregation and demographics in schools have changed in the first two decades of the 20th century. Following school desegregation required by Supreme Court decisions in 1954 and 1968, many white families moved to suburbs, a pattern known historically as white flight, that resisted forced school integration. Patterns of racial separation in schools have evolved ever since.
To get an updated look, study authors compared census data showing the demographic makeup of communities as well as racial and ethnic data from schools across the country. That data was paired with a practice known as dasymetric interpolation, which uses GIS technology to compare patterns while holding current school district boundaries consistent during the 20-year period.
“Dasymetric interpolation allows you to accurately split boundary changes and use the technique as a fine-tuned way to get populations weighted correctly,” Mann said.
Study findings showed that suburban districts that had majority white populations, or more than 90% of enrolled students who were white, dropped from 91.39% in 2000 to 80.26% in 2020. Majority white districts that showed 10% growth in students of color was found in 56.48% of suburban school districts.
Conversely, urban districts with 90% or more students of color enrollment nearly doubled, increasing from 8.65% in 2000 to 16.71% in 2020.
The study also examined residential demographics and found that residents in suburban communities diversified at slower rates than their schools. That could be due to several factors, Mann said, including older residents not having children in schools or, in the case of urban districts, white residents not enrolling their children in those schools, perhaps opting for private or other nearby schools.
All data in the study was for elementary school districts. It did not include data for Tennessee, Alaska and Hawaii, as necessary data to make comparisons was not available in those states. With those factors considered, the changes in school demographics, with suburban districts becoming more diverse and urban districts becoming more racially isolated, occurred across the country.
Mann, who studies school segregation, changing enrollment patterns and policy and built interactive maps for researchers and policymakers, said the study can be useful to anyone looking to understand the makeup of American schools and the necessary policies to ensure students from every type of district are receiving equitable educational opportunities.
“There are different reasons in different states for changing demographics, but it is happening nearly everywhere,” Mann said. “This can motivate more research that can break out the data into more detail. We know these patterns are happening for a lot of reasons, and I think examining them further will be the next big step in educational research.”