Doctoral Dissertation Research: URBAN-TO-SUBURBAN RACIAL DESEGREGATION: A NATURAL EXPERIMENT

摘要本研究在东北某城市周边的郊区公立学校进行自然实验，考察持续沉浸在不同的社区环境中对个人和社区的影响过程。这项研究有两个主要目标。首先，该项目试图了解日常接触以白人为主的富裕郊区社区环境如何影响来自城市社区的非裔美国青少年的社会和学术行为和愿望。其次，该研究旨在确定这些学生影响其学校社区社会和文化景观的过程。在方法上，这项研究依赖于对大都市地区三组八年级到十年级学生的比较。第一组学生通过种族隔离计划进入富裕郊区以白人为主的学校就读（n=30）。第二组的成员已被列入废除种族隔离计划的候补名单，并就读于该市表现不佳、少数族裔占多数的公立、特许和教区学校（n=30）。第三组由富裕的郊区白人学生组成，他们就读于参与废除种族隔离计划的学校（n=30）。从广义上讲，这项研究将为社会不平等是如何再现和中断的提供理论和实证见解。这项研究将通过确定富裕的郊区环境对弱势青少年的影响机制，使政策制定者受益。

PI and Co-PI: Orlando Patterson and Simone Ispa-LandaSocial and Academic Urban to Suburban Racial Desegregation A Natural Experiment0824564 Abstract This study uses a natural experiment in the suburban public schools surrounding a Northeastern city to examine the processes through which continual immersion in divergent neighborhood contexts influences individuals and communities. The research has two overarching goals. First, the project seeks to understand how routine exposure to a majority-White, affluent suburban neighborhood context could influence the social and academic behaviors and aspirations of African-American adolescents from urban neighborhoods. Second, the research aims to identify the processes through which these students affect the social and cultural landscape of their school communities. Methodologically, the research relies on a comparison of three groups of eighth-to-tenth grade students in a metropolitan area. The first group attends majority-White schools in affluent suburban school district through a racial desegregation program (n=30). Members of the second group have been waitlisted for the desegregation program and attend low-performing, majority-minority public, charter, and parochial schools in the city (n=30). The third group consists of affluent White suburban students attending schools that participate in the desegregation program (n=30). Broadly, the research will provide theoretical and empirical insight into how social inequalities are reproduced and interrupted. The research will benefit policy makers by identifying the mechanisms through which exposure to an affluent suburban environment influences less privileged adolescents.