SBP: School attendance zone boundaries and the connection to neighborhoods, segregation, and access to educational opportunity

学校是影响社会机会的关键场所。研究表明，种族多元化的学校有利于所有学生，尤其是黑人和拉丁裔学生；它们还使社区和社会受益，因为改善的学习成绩会使学生终生受益。然而，即使在多元化的社区，学校隔离现象也在加剧。由于缺乏有关学区如何调整其学校的集水区的数据，造成这种情况的原因模糊不清。这些调整可以归因于人口和住房市场变化所驱动的对学校需求的变化，但也可以反映与法院监督的结束和学校选择政策的出现有关的变化，包括特许学校的兴起。该项目将阐明导致学校继续隔离的机制和产生融合的机制，以指导各级政府的政策。由于种族隔离的多方面影响，了解住宅分类和学校种族隔离之间的关系将促进国家的健康、繁荣和福利。考虑到学校出勤区在塑造学生的结果和推动住宅分类的住房市场方面所起的作用，值得注意的是，近几十年来，关于学区何时、是否或如何改变出勤区边界的信息很少。我们知道，学区经常调整出勤界限，其结果因地区人口、法律和政策特征而异。这种变化可能会(a)在郊区和异质地区更加频繁，并产生更高的教育隔离；(b)近几十年来，在以前受法院监管的地区，加强学校和住宅隔离之间的联系；(c)在实行自愿融合政策的地区推行较低的学校隔离。我们还知道，学校选择已经将居住地点和入学率脱钩，尽管在种族群体中不平等。为了评价这些机制的运作，本项目将开发一个新的数据源，即纵向就学边界（LSABs），以捕捉1990年至2020年的边界和人口组成变化。虽然有关于考勤区域边界的国家级数据，但这些数据提供了2010年至2015年之间的快照，几乎没有机会检查与人口和政策变化相对应的较长时间内的变化。该项目将收集当前（2019- 2020年）和历史（1990年和2000年）上学区边界的数据，以分析学区在过去三十年中的变化。如果将这些数据与人口统计数据以及择校政策信息结合起来，这些数据将为理解寄宿学校和学校分拣过程之间的联系取得重大进展。解开这些人口、市场和政策变化之间的关系有助于社会学文献通过住宅分类、种族隔离、学校质量和社区影响的视角来研究不平等。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Schools are a critical site affecting social opportunity. Research shows that ethno-racially diverse schools benefit all students, particularly black and Latino students; they also benefit communities and society as improved school outcomes generate benefits throughout a student's life. Nevertheless, school segregation is rising even in diversifying communities. The reasons for this are obscured by an absence of data on how school districts are adjusting the catchment areas among their schools. These adjustments can be attributed to changing demand for schools driven by demographic and housing market changes but can also reflect changes linked to the end of court supervision, and the advent of school choice policies, including the rise of charter schools. This project will illuminate the mechanisms driving continued school segregation and those that are producing integration to guide policy at all levels of government. Because of the multifaceted effects of segregation, understanding the relationship between residential sorting and school segregation will advance the health, prosperity and welfare of the nation.Given the role that school attendance zones play in shaping outcomes for students and the housing market that drives residential sorting, it is remarkable that little information exists on when, if, or how school districts have changed attendance zone boundaries in recent decades. We know that school districts frequently adjust attendance boundaries with outcomes that vary by district demographic, legal, and policy characteristics. Such changes are likely to (a) be more frequent, and produce higher educational segregation, in suburban and heterogeneous districts; (b) strengthen the link between school and residential segregation in recent decades for districts formerly under court supervision; and (c) promote lower school segregation in districts with voluntary integration policies. We also know that school choice has decoupled residential location and school attendance, albeit unequally across racial groups. To evaluate the operation of these mechanisms, this project will develop a new data source, the Longitudinal School Attendance Boundaries (LSABs), to capture boundary and population composition changes for 1990 to 2020. National-level data on attendance zone boundaries exists but these data offer a snapshot between 2010 and 2015 with little opportunity to examine change over a longer period of time corresponding with demographic and policy changes. This project will collect data on both current (2019-20) and historic (1990 and 2000) school attendance zone boundaries to permit analyses of how school districts have changed over the past thirty years. When combined with demographic data as well as information on school choice policies, these data will represent a significant advance for understanding the links between residential and school sorting processes. Unpacking the relationships among these demographic, market, and policy changes contributes to sociological literatures that examine inequality through the lens of residential sorting, racial segregation, school quality, and neighborhood effects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.