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Students experiencing homelessness spend their nights in various settings, including shelters, with friends/families (doubled-up), motels/hotels, and unsheltered contexts. Yet there is limited quantitative research on how educational outcomes vary by residential context. We analyze data from over 400,000 students in Houston Independent School District from 2012–2013 to 2016–2017 via fixed-effects models and coarsened exact matching techniques. We find that students who became homeless attended less school and were more likely to drop out than nonhomeless students but had comparable achievement growth and disciplinary infractions. However, outcomes varied significantly by residential context: Doubled-up students fared relatively well on most outcomes, whereas students in shelter had particularly poor attainment. Results highlight the importance of research and practice that attends to differences by residential context.

Background Despite accounting for 3% of the student population, multiracial students are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the United States. Aligning with new federal guidelines, in 2008, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) revised its single-race reporting scheme for the Common Core of Data (CCD), permitting students to identify as two or more races (i.e., multiracial). Study Objective The addition of a multiracial reporting category to the NCES CCD permits students to more accurately represent their racial identity. By creating categories that are not strictly comparable to their historical counterparts, however, it may problematize longitudinal analysis of trends in the racial composition and segregation of schools, which are of perennial scholarly and public interest. In this study, we examine the extent to which the reporting change affects estimates of segregation over time. Research Design We compute annual values of racial/ethnic segregation (i.e., isolation and dissimilarity) among elementary schools for 5,357 public school districts using data from the NCES CCD Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey from 2000–01 to 2013–14. Before 2008, we compute segregation for the five monoracial groups tracked by the CCD. After 2008, we compute segregation using the two analytical approaches to the treatment of multiracial students that have been employed by scholars of segregation. We estimate the effect of the racial/ethnic reporting change on estimates of segregation via a series of multilevel longitudinal fixed-effects models. Results We found that the NCES CCD's addition of a multiracial reporting category has problematized longitudinal analyses of segregation, particularly racial/ethnic isolation. Models revealed abrupt changes in most dimensions of segregation in the year immediately following the reporting change. Moreover, the reporting change has complicated interpretation of segregation trends since 2008, because seemingly minor analytical decisions may lead to contradictory conclusions: When multiracial students are excluded from calculations, isolation appears to be increasing for all racial/ethnic groups; however, when multiracial students are included in calculations, isolation appears to be decreasing for all racial/ethnic groups. The reporting change has a weaker, but still significant, effect on certain dimensions of racial/ethnic dissimilarity. Conclusions In this study, we found that the NCES CCD's recent addition of a multiracial reporting category has resulted in estimates of segregation that are not longitudinally comparable and may vary in magnitude and direction depending on relatively minor analytical decisions. We urge scholars to take particular care in calculating and interpreting segregation trends and offer recommendations for educational research and practice.

BackgroundScholars have increasingly expressed concern about a new secessionist movement, grounded in a doctrine of localism and facilitated by permissive state policies regarding the formation of new school districts. Critics contend that school district secessions threaten to exacerbate patterns of segregation and inequality in schools. Although case studies have provided valuable detail on the processes and racial/ethnic dynamics of secession in high-profile secessions in the South, no extant work has examined secessions nationally.ObjectiveIn this study, I provide initial quantitative evidence on the prevalence and impact of public school district secessions in a national context. I make three key contributions. First, I identify districts that seceded over the past two decades, relating patterns of secession to state policies. Second, I document racial/ethnic and socioeconomic differences between seceding districts and the districts they left behind, focusing on the differential dynamics of secession in the South. Finally, I examine the impact of secession on the level and geographic distribution of segregation across and between districts.Research DesignI use geospatial techniques to identify 54 public school district secessions that occurred between 1995–96 and 2015–16, using school district boundaries as reported by the Census Bureau via the School District Review Program. I compare seceding districts to the original district from which they seceded in terms of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic characteristics. I estimate the impact of secession on segregation via interrupted time series models using annual measures of segregation calculated from the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data.FindingsSince 1995, dozens of districts across the country have successfully seceded. Troublingly, secessions generally serve to worsen racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequities: Seceding districts were smaller, Whiter, and more affluent on average than the districts from which they seceded. Secessions were also associated with significant increases in segregation after adjusting for prior segregation trends. Secessions in the South were particularly racialized in nature. Southern secessions tended to worsen already severe levels of Black–White segregation.ConclusionsSchool district secessions constitute an increasingly popular and controversial mechanism of school district reorganization. Results suggest that district secessions, often framed in a race-neutral language of localism, serve to worsen inequalities by race and class. However, only a handful of secessions occurred in states that require analysis of the racial/ethnic and/or socioeconomic impacts, suggesting that policies may be effective in curtailing such practices.

Scholars have often suggested that racial integration is inherently unstable—a transition point in the racial transformation of neighborhoods and schools. While much empirical attention has been paid to documenting changes in segregation in public school districts, in this study we provide initial evidence focusing on the stability of segregation patterns. We calculate annual measures of district racial/ethnic segregation from the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data from 1993 to 2015. Our findings suggest that despite relatively high and stable levels of segregation nationally, stability is the rule, rather than the exception, for the majority of public school districts. Using a taxonomy of severity and stability derived from previous scholarship, we find that most districts are “stably integrated,” with a minority “stably segregated” or exhibiting meaningful change. Our findings suggest that further attention to the characteristics and practices of “stably integrated” districts may be warranted.

Since the Common School era, states have maintained truancy laws to ensure that students attend school. However, we know little about the severity of these laws and their relationship to st...

Gerrymandering is known best as a tool to manipulate boundaries for voting districts, but school districts have long used the same tool to manipulate school boundaries. The author used geospatial techniques — mapping various kinds of demographic data onto school boundaries — to examine public school attendance zones and their effect on students. The author’s research yielded several key insights. Like congressional districts, school zones are highly gerrymandered; the gerrymandering of school zones serves to worsen the already severe racial segregation of public schools, but affirmative gerrymandering can effectively increase diversity and reduce racial segregation.

Background While postwar suburban migration established suburbs as relatively affluent, homogeneous white enclaves distinct from the urban core, recent waves of suburbanization and exurbanization have been spurred largely by rapid growth in the nonwhite population. While these increases in suburban racial/ethnic diversity represent a significant evolution of the traditional “chocolate city, vanilla suburbs” dichotomy, scholars have expressed concern that they are worsening racial/ethnic segregation among suburban public school students. Objective In this study, we document shifts in the racial imbalance of suburban schools in terms of several racial/ethnic and geographic dimensions (i.e., multiracial, black–white; between and within suburban districts, among localities). In addition, we extend the urban/suburban dichotomy to provide initial evidence on changes in racial balance in metropolitan exurbs. Finally, we use inferential models to directly examine the impact of changes in racial/ethnic diversity on shifts in racial imbalance. Research Design Using demographic data from the National Center of Education Statistics Common Core of Data on 209 U.S. metropolitan areas, we provide a descriptive analysis of changes in segregation within and between urban, suburban, and exurban localities from 2002 to 2012. We measure segregation using Theil's entropy index, which quantifies racial balance across geographic units. We assess the relationship between demographic change and change in segregation via a series of longitudinal fixed-effects models. Results Longitudinal analyses indicate that increases in racial/ethnic diversity are positively related to change in racial imbalance. However, observed increases in diversity were generally insufficient to produce meaningful increases in segregation. As a result, suburbs and exurbs, like urban areas, experienced little change in segregation, although trends were generally in a negative direction and more localities experienced meaningful declines in segregation than meaningful increases. Findings are less encouraging for suburbs and exurbs than for urban areas and underscore the intractability of black-white racial imbalance and the emerging spatial imbalance of Asians and whites. We also document an important shift in the geographic distribution of segregation, with suburbs now accounting for a plurality of metropolitan segregation. Conclusions Contrary to previous researchers, we do not find evidence that suburban and exurban schools are resegregating, although we fail to document meaningful progress towards racial equity. Moreover, while suburbs are not necessarily resegregating, we find that segregation is suburbanizing, and now accounts for the largest share of segregation of any locality. We conclude with a discussion of recommendations for policy and research.

COVID-19 has necessitated innovation in many parts of our lives and qualitative research is no exception, as in-person qualitative data collection has been complicated by the constraints of social distancing and the prioritization of participants’ and researchers’ safety. Consequently, virtual methods have quickly gained traction. However, there is little research that comprehensively explores the range of practical, rigorous, and ethical considerations that arise when designing and engaging in virtual qualitative research. Addressing this gap, we examine the process of designing and conducting a virtual qualitative study, using specific examples from our case study of student homelessness in Houston, Texas that drew from semi-structured interviews and the analysis of over 50 documents. Garnering insights from Salmons’ Qualitative e-Research Framework (2016), and benefiting from 22 technical memos that documented our process, we profile the challenges we faced—and choices we made in response—as we designed and conducted our study. Our findings suggest that in practice, engaging in virtual qualitative research, particularly in the era of COVID-19, is a purposive exercise that requires thoughtful, careful analysis around a number of methodological challenges as well as ethical and equity-oriented questions. Our exploratory work has timely implications for qualitative scholars in the current COVID-19 context, but also showcases the potential to conduct high-quality, rigorous, ethical qualitative research in a virtual format, offering a glimmer of hope for more equitable qualitative research in contexts of crisis and beyond.

Recent scholarship has highlighted the phenomenon of urban public school closures and their effects on student academic outcomes. However, we know little about the broader impact of closures, particularly on teachers who are also displaced by closure. We assess labor market outcomes for over 15,000 teachers in nearly 700 Texas schools displaced by closure between 2003 and 2015. Using a unique administrative data set, we find that closures were associated with an increased likelihood of teachers leaving teaching as well as changing school districts. Notably, teachers in charters that closed were particularly likely to leave. In addition, closures appear to push out senior teachers and worsen the already substantial underrepresentation of Black teachers.

Background Prior research has found that teacher dissatisfaction with low salaries is one reason for teacher turnover. Accordingly, policy makers have championed financial incentives as a way of increasing teachers’ job satisfaction and making the teaching profession and specific schools more attractive to current and potential teachers. Despite the enthusiasm for such incentive policies, empirical evidence of their effects on teacher mobility is mixed. Purpose In this study, we contribute to the extant literature on teacher financial incentives by shifting focus from the probability of teacher turnover to investigate how incentives, particularly school-based incentives, structure teachers’ patterns of mobility within districts. We explore the effects of financial incentives on teacher mobility patterns in the context of Denver's Professional Compensation System for Teachers (“ProComp”), one of the most prominent alternative teacher compensation reforms in the nation. Setting Denver Public Schools, Denver, Colorado. Population Denver Public Schools classroom teachers employed in the district any time during 2006–2010, who were eligible to participate in the financial incentive program (regardless of whether they did), and who made at least one voluntary within-district move during the study period (n = 989). Program Since 2006, Denver's ProComp program has offered teachers a variety of school-based and individual financial incentives. Specifically, in addition to incentives offered to teachers for their individual accomplishments, ProComp provides incentives of over $2,400 each for teachers that teach in top performing schools, high growth schools, and hard-to-serve schools. Because ProComp offers substantial incentives to teachers on the basis of school characteristics, it holds the potential to incentivize “strategic moves” to schools with more school-based incentives. Research Design The study employs a descriptive statistical research design. Data Collection and Analysis We use Denver Public Schools administrative data from 2005–2006 to 2009–2010 to estimate a series of conditional logit models predicting teachers’ moves as a function of their ProComp participation and the value of school-based incentives at the schools they leave and the schools they could potentially transfer to. Findings Our findings suggest ProComp participants tend to make more strategic moves to high value schools than their non-ProComp peers. However, these moves tend to be to schools that have high performance and growth in achievement, rather than to schools that receive incentives for serving low-income populations. Conclusions Results suggest that school-based ProComp incentives do influence strategic moves, albeit in ways not necessarily consistent with the program's intent, calling into question the ability of ProComp to attract teachers to low-income schools under its current structure.

Context Despite the recent emphasis on public school choice, more than four-fifths of public school students still attend the traditional school to which they are assigned (NCES CCD, 2013), making attendance zone boundaries critical and fercely contested determinants of educational opportunity. Historical and anecdotal evidence suggests that attendance zone boundaries are not “accidents of geography,” but have been “gerrymandered” into irregular shapes in ways that alter patterns of student attendance. However, no empirical evidence has directly examined the issue of attendance zone gerrymandering. Purpose of Study Drawing on the literature on electoral gerrymandering, we outline a framework for conceptualizing and measuring educational gerrymandering. Using geospatial techniques, we then provide initial empirical evidence on the gerrymandering of school attendance zones and the variation in gerrymandering across geographic and demographic contexts. Research Design We analyze the boundaries of a large national sample of 23,945 school attendance zones obtained from the School Attendance Boundary Information System (SABINS). For each attendance zone, we compute complementary measures assessing two dimensions of gerrymandering: (1) dispersion, or the elongation of the area of a boundary; and (2) indentation, or the irregularity of the perimeter of a boundary. Results Overall, we find that attendance zones are highly gerrymandered—nearly as much as legislative districts—and are becoming more gerrymandered over time. Findings underscore the racial and, to a lesser extent, socioeconomic character of gerrymandering, which is particularly acute in Whiter and more affluent schools and in areas experiencing rapid racial change. Conclusions The gerrymandering of school attendance zones has significant implications for students and schools. Gerrymandering alters patterns of attendance and, thereby, student access to educational opportunity and resources, by “zoning out” certain students living closer to schools while “zoning in” others living farther away. Gerrymandered boundaries also hold the potential to significantly alter the racial and ethnic composition of schools and may serve as a mechanism of segregation. In addition, gerrymandered attendance zones are inherently inefficient and may impose additional transportation costs on students and districts. We conclude with implications for state and federal policy.

In this study, I employ geospatial techniques to assess the impact of school attendance zone “gerrymandering” on the racial/ethnic segregation of schools, using a large national sample of 15,290 attendance zones in 663 districts. I estimate the effect of gerrymandering on school diversity and school district segregation by comparing the racial/ethnic characteristics of existing attendance zones to those of counterfactual zones expected in the absence of gerrymandering. Results indicate that the gerrymandering of attendance zones generally exacerbates segregation, although it has a weaker effect on the segregation of Whites from Blacks and Hispanics. Gerrymandering is particularly segregative in districts experiencing rapid racial/ethnic change. However, gerrymandering is associated with reductions in segregation in a substantial minority of districts, notably those under desegregation orders.

Context Scholars have increasingly raised concerns about the “fragmentation” or proliferation of metropolitan public school districts, citing the potential for fragmentation to facilitate racial/ethnic segregation by permitting individuals to sort more efficiently across district boundaries. In addition, scholars have expressed particular concern about the rapid growth of charter districts and their potential to exacerbate segregation. Purpose of Study In this study, we provide initial evidence on the effect of public school district fragmentation on the trajectory of racial/ethnic segregation in metropolitan areas, attending to the differential effects of regular school district fragmentation as well as charter district fragmentation. Research Design Using NCES Common Core data for the 2002–2010 school years, we computed measures of regular public school district fragmentation and charter district fragmentation as well as nine measures of racial/ethnic segregation for all 366 U.S. metropolitan areas (3 geographic x 3 racial/ethnic decompositions). We then estimated a series of multilevel longitudinal models predicting change in each measure of segregation as a function of regular and charter school district fragmentation. Results We found that school district fragmentation is unrelated to the overall level of segregation in a metropolitan area. More fragmented metropolitan areas have higher levels of segregation across districts than less fragmented metropolitan areas; however, they have lower levels of segregation within districts and equivalent levels of total metropolitan segregation. Likewise, school district fragmentation was not associated with worsening segregation over time or with attenuation of the secular trend toward declining segregation. More fragmented metropolitan areas had smaller declines in between-district segregation over the study period than less fragmented metropolitan areas; however, they had equivalent declines in within-district and total metropolitan segregation. In addition, charter district fragmentation was unrelated to the level or trajectory of school segregation in a metropolitan area. Conclusions Our results provide a somewhat more sanguine assessment of school district fragmentation than previous research. We found that the fragmentation of regular public school districts serves to shift the geographic scale of segregation from within districts to between districts; however, fragmentation does not exacerbate metropolitan racial/ethnic segregation. In addition, despite the rapid growth of charter districts, we find no evidence that charter district fragmentation has worsened overall metropolitan racial/ethnic segregation. Moreover, metropolitan areas are not experiencing the “fragmentation” of their traditional public school districts; rather, traditional school districts are consolidating despite increasing enrollment.