Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Neighborhood-School Link in Gentrifying Areas

本文探讨了美国社区与传统公立学校之间不断变化的关系。在过去的几十年里，几乎所有的孩子都在附近的学校上学。然而，最近的报告显示，家庭居住地和送孩子上学之间历来紧密的关系已经减弱。特别关注社区和学校进程如何在高绅化地区发挥作用，调查人员从三个关键方面考察了社区和学校之间的联系：(1)社区和当地学校之间的联系，种族和社会经济构成随着时间的推移；(2)家庭居住地与子女是否入读当地学校之间的联系；(3)社区与学校之间联系的松动如何影响教育成果。这篇论文是第一个多城市的纵向研究之一，旨在研究美国社区与传统公立学校之间不断演变的关系；为数不多的探讨住宿与入学选择关系的国家级定量研究之一；也是第一批探索中产阶级化和学校之间关系的定量研究之一。虽然大多数先前的研究都集中在社区或学校环境上，但该项目同时分析了这两种背景，并认真对待社区和学校的空间相互依存关系，增强了对社区和学校之间不断变化的关系的基本理解。这种方法将为共同考虑住宅和学校环境的政策提供信息。总之，这些分析将有助于我们理解社区-学校联系变化的趋势、机制和影响，以及这种关系如何在城市和社区变化的背景下展开。考虑到人口变化如何重新配置美国的城市地区，这项研究对理论以及城市、住房和教育政策具有重要意义。利用来自多个国家数据源的多波数据，本文采用统计分析来解决其问题，以及地理软件和技术来匹配家庭和学生的社区和学校特征。首先，该项目将人口普查和国家教育统计中心（NCES）的数据与2000年和2010年美国学区子集的独特入学率边界数据相结合，以研究学校种族和社会经济构成如何随着社区的变化而变化，特别是在为中产阶级社区服务的学校。接下来，本项目将超越总体层面的分析，结合人口普查、NCES和收入动态小组研究（Panel Study of Income Dynamics）的数据，对中产阶级化社区家庭的入学结果进行建模，探索家庭和学校特征如何影响入学决策，以及其他入学选择的可得性。最后，研究人员将建立一个模型，研究社区与学校关系的变化对学生成绩和持久性的影响。

This dissertation explores the changing relationship between neighborhoods and traditional public schools in the United States. In earlier decades, nearly all children attended their neighborhood school. Recent reports suggest, however, that the historically tight relationship between where families live and send their child to school has weakened. With a particular focus on how neighborhood and school processes play out in gentrifying areas, the investigators examine the neighborhood-school link in three key ways: (1) the link between neighborhood and local school racial and socioeconomic composition over time; (2) the link between where families live and whether they enroll their child in the local school; (3) how the loosening link between neighborhoods and schools affects educational outcomes. This dissertation represents one of the first multi-city, longitudinal studies to examine the evolving relationship between neighborhoods and traditional public schools in the U.S.; one of few national-level quantitative studies exploring the relationship between residential and school enrollment choices; and one of the first quantitative studies to explore the relationship between gentrification and schools. While most prior research focuses on either the neighborhood or school environment, this project analyzes both contexts simultaneously and takes seriously the spatial interdependence of neighborhoods and schools, enhancing basic understanding of the changing relationship between neighborhoods and schools. Such an approach will inform policies that jointly consider residential and school contexts. Together, these analyses will contribute to our understanding of trends, mechanisms, and effects of the changing neighborhood-school link and how this relationship unfolds in a context of urban and neighborhood change. Given how demographic changes are reconfiguring urban areas across the U.S., this research has important implications for theory, as well as for urban, housing, and education policies.Drawing upon multiple waves of data from several national data sources, this dissertation employs statistical analyses to address its questions, as well as geographic software and techniques to match neighborhood and school characteristics to families and students. First, this project combines data from the Census and National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) with unique school attendance boundary data on a subset of U.S. school districts for 2000 and 2010 to examine how school racial and socioeconomic composition changes as neighborhoods change, particularly in schools serving gentrifying neighborhoods. Next, this project moves beyond aggregate-level analyses, combining data from the Census, NCES, and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to model school enrollment outcomes among families in gentrifying neighborhoods, exploring how schooling decisions are shaped by family and school characteristics and the availability of alternative schooling options. Finally, the investigators will model the effects of the changing neighborhood-school relationship on student achievement and persistence over time.