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。在之前的几十年里，几乎所有的孩子都在附近的学校上学。然而，最近的报告表明，家庭居住地和送孩子上学之间历史上的紧密关系已经减弱。调查人员特别关注社区和学校过程如何在士绅化地区发挥作用，他们从三个关键方面考察了社区和学校之间的联系：(1)随着时间的推移，社区和当地学校种族和社会经济构成之间的联系；(2)家庭居住地和他们的孩子是否在当地学校入学之间的联系；(3)社区和学校之间松散的联系如何影响教育结果。这篇论文是美国首批考察社区和传统公立学校之间演变关系的多城市纵向研究之一；是少数几项探索寄宿和学校招生选择之间关系的全国性量化研究之一；也是首批探索士绅化和学校之间关系的量化研究之一。虽然以往的研究大多侧重于社区或学校环境，但该项目同时分析了这两种环境，并认真考虑了社区和学校之间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居住和学校情况的政策提供参考。总之，这些分析将有助于我们理解不断变化的社区-学校联系的趋势、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。鉴于人口结构的变化正在如何重塑美国的城市地区，这项研究对理论以及城市、住房和教育政策都具有重要的影响。本文利用来自几个国家数据源的多波数据，使用统计分析来解决问题，并使用地理软件和技术将社区和学校的特征与家庭和学生相匹配。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就学边界数据相结合，以检查学校种族和社会经济构成如何随着社区的变化而变化，特别是在为士绅化社区服务的学校中。接下来，该项目超越了总体水平的分析，结合了人口普查、NCES和收入动态小组研究的数据，对中产阶级化社区家庭的入学结果进行了建模，探索了家庭和学校特征以及替代教育选择的可用性如何影响学校教育决策。最后，研究人员将模拟不断变化的邻里-学校关系对学生成绩和坚持不懈的影响。

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.