Doctoral Dissertation Research: Educational Segregation in the United States

博士论文改进授予博士论文研究：美国的教育隔离尽管种族和阶级隔离在过去的半个世纪里逐渐减少，但美国的教育程度越来越高。1940年，只有不到5%的美国成年人口拥有学士或更高学位，但这些大学毕业生相对平均地分布在美国各地。今天，超过25%的美国成年人已经完成了大学教育，但大学毕业生高度集中。美国超过一半的大学毕业生生活在10%的县，而美国大片地区的大学毕业生人数很少，而且还在不断减少。这篇论文将使用美国十年一次的人口普查数据来记录教育隔离在县和人口普查地区层面的上升。它将利用人口普查数据以及当前人口纵向调查(CPS)和国家青年纵向调查(NLSY)数据，隔离导致教育隔离程度上升的移民流。最后，本文将考虑教育隔离的广泛后果。人力资本集中对儿童教育具有溢出效应，为在人力资本中心长大的儿童带来了更多的教育机会(无论他们父母的教育程度如何)，并剥夺了正在经历人才外流地区的儿童的机会。这也是美国政治文化地理两极分化的主要原因。虽然个人教育程度并不能预测投票行为，但人才外流县始终获得共和党的压倒性多数，而人才县则始终如一地投票给民主党。通过促进我们对教育隔离作为一种广泛的人口现象的理解，该项目将有助于努力阻止人才外流地区的人口减少，并刺激更公平的经济和教育发展模式。旨在减缓农村人口减少的立法目前正在美国国会和美国几个州议会待决。与此同时，全县各地政府都在寻求有效的经济发展战略。这篇论文的发现将与这些政策讨论直接相关。

Paul Attewell, Thurston DominaDoctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant Doctoral Dissertation Research: Educational Segration in the United StatesEven as racial and class segregation has gradually declined over the last half century, the United States has become increasingly segregated by educational attainment. In 1940, less than 5% of the adult U.S. population had a bachelor's degree or higher, but these college graduates were scattered relatively evenly across the American landscape. Today, more than 25% of American adults have completed a college education, but college graduates are highly concentrated. More than half of America's college graduates live in 10% of its counties, while vast stretches of the United States have small and declining populations of college graduates. This dissertation will use data from the decennial U.S. Census to document the rise of educational segregation at the county and the census tract level. It will isolate the migration streams that underlie rising levels of educational segregation, using Census data, along with longitudinal Current Population Survey (CPS) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data. Finally, this dissertation will consider the wide-ranging consequences of educational segregation. Human capital concentration has spillover effects for children's education, bringing increased educational opportunities to children who grow up in human capital hubs (regardless of their own parents' educations), and denying opportunities to children in areas experiencing brain drain. It is also major factor behind the geographic polarization of American political culture. While individual educational attainment does not predict voting behavior, brain drain counties consistently deliver overwhelming Republican majorities, while brain gain counties consistently vote Democratic. By advancing our understanding of educational segregation as a broad demographic phenomenon, this project will contribute to efforts to stem depopulation in areas undergoing brain drain and to stimulate more equitable economic and educational development patterns. Legislation designed to slow rural depopulation is currently pending in the U.S. Congress and in several American statehouses. Meanwhile, local governments across the county search for effective economic development strategies. This dissertation's findings will be directly relevant to these policy discussions.