Recipients of PSC Small Grant Awards

American public schools are intimately tied to the neighborhoods in which they are located, a relationship created by the widespread policy of assigning schools by residence. Within the U.S. context of deep racial and socioeconomic inequality, this process links residential areas segregated by race and class to public schools, with their own long history of resistance to integration. However, neighborhoods and schools are not stagnant, and extensive research has documented how neighborhoods make socioeconomic and racial transitions through
processes like white flight or gentrification. That said, surprisingly little research has examined the connection between these two powerful forces of social stratification and how these domains may influence each other over time. My project seeks to fill this gap in the literature by examining whether and how public schools change in relation to the neighborhoods in which they are located. While we expect the fates of neighborhoods and schools to be closely tied, demographic changes may affect these two domains differently or at different times or rates.

Funding Source: Marshall Weinberg Research Fellowship