AERA Open - Racial Economic Segregation across U.S. Public Schools, 1991–2022

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Adam

Explores how racial economic segregation in U.S. public schools has evolved from 1991 to 2022, using trends across multiple geographic scales, including between-state, between-district, and within-district segregation. Finds overall decreases since the late 1990s, but persistent isolation of Black students in schools with higher poverty. Shows between-district segregation as the largest component, while within-district segregation has risen steadily, informing policy priorities for interdistrict and intradistrict diversity.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages25

Reading Time1 h 3 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Background on racial and economic school segregation

Research Focus and Rationale

Defining racial economic segregation

Why examine changes across recent decades

Previous Work and Measurement Approach

Prior studies and use of Common Core of Data

Free lunch eligibility as a poverty measure

AERA Open January-December 2024, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 1–25 DOI: 10. 1177/23328584241282274 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© The Author(s) 2024. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero) Racial Economic Segregation across U.S. Public Schools, 1991–2022 Heewon Jang University of Alabama Despite its substantive importance as the strongest predictor of racial achievement gaps, racial economic segregation has been understudied in the previous literature on segregation. This paper describes trends in racial economic segregation over the last three decades and decomposes these trends into different geographic scales (e.g., between-state, between-district, and within-district segregation). Racial economic segregation has decreased since the late 1990s, yet Black students are still considerably isolated in schools with higher poverty rates. Between-district segregation has been the largest component of racial economic segregation, whereas within-district segregation has grown steadily during the last three decades. Findings from this study suggest the imperativeness of interdistrict policy remedies while also highlighting intradistrict policy needs for promoting student diversity across schools in the district. Keywords: school segregation, racial segregation, economic segregation, school poverty, segregation decomposition The era of court-ordered school desegregation did not last longer than a few decades after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, with many school districts released from court oversight in the 1990s (Reardon et al., 2012) . Research on racial school segregation has reported mixed evidence on the resegregation of schools by race (Logan et al., 2017; Reardon & Owens, 2014; Richards et al., 2020; Stroub & Richards, 2013) . In contrast, studies on economic school segregation have documented clearer evidence of growing segregation by income between school districts. (Owens et al., 2016, 2022; Reardon & Bischoff, 2013) . These studies use various measures of racial or economic segregation to describe the separation of students by race or class. However, they have a crucial limitation in conceptualizing school segregation in the United States by overlooking the intersection of race and poverty. Due to the historical protection of white privilege as property (Capper, 2015; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995), children of color have become isolated in higher-poverty schools with limited access to quality teachers compared with their white peers (Goldhaber et al., 2015; Simon & Johnson, 2015) . As reported by several researchers and media sources, these schools do not have sufficient financial and social support for teachers, which impacts teacher retention and school climate (Kelleher, 2015; Mason-Williams et al., 2023; NowThis, 2019) . Moreover, the separation of students by race and class hinders intergroup contact across students from diverse backgrounds, which is important for delivering democratic values (Williams & Graham, 2019) . Consequently, racial economic segregation may negatively impact educational equity and civic preparation within U.S. society. This paper focuses on the isolation of racially minoritized students in high-poverty schools, hereafter referred to as racial economic segregation. Understanding how racial economic segregation has changed in recent decades is timely and essential for several reasons. First, recent studies show that racial economic segregation significantly impacts racial achievement gaps, even more so than racial segregation (Reardon, 2016; Reardon et al., 2022) . Second, demographic shifts in the 2000s may have influenced racial/ethnic disparities in exposure to school poverty. Child poverty rates increased, with steeper rises among Black and Hispanic children 1 compared with white children (Nolan et al., 2017) . During the same

FAQs

What definition does the paper use for racial economic segregation?

It focuses on the isolation of racially minoritized students in high-poverty schools, referred to as racial economic segregation.

How has racial economic segregation changed since the late 1990s?

It decreased overall, but Black students remain considerably isolated in schools with higher poverty rates.

Which geographic scale contributes most, and which has grown over time?

Between-district segregation is the largest component, while within-district segregation has grown steadily over the last three decades.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Adam