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Research Article
Open Access

Little Boxes All the Same? Racial-Ethnic Segregation and Educational Inequality Across the Urban-Suburban Divide

Ann Owens, Peter Rich
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences February 2023, 9 (2) 26-54; DOI: https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2023.9.2.02
Ann Owens
aProfessor of sociology and, by courtesy, public policy and spatial sciences at the University of Southern California, United States
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Peter Rich
bAssistant professor of sociology and public policy at the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University, United States
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Abstract

Suburbs were once a haven for advantaged, White families to avoid city life and access high-status schools. This urban-suburban divide, however, has changed in recent decades as suburban communities (and their school districts) have diversified. This study provides an updated cross-sectional portrait of recent racial-ethnic segregation and inequality between and within urban and suburban school districts in U.S. metropolitan areas. We find that the urban-suburban divide remains an important stratifying force—a substantial portion of racial-ethnic residential and school segregation, as well as racial-ethnic inequality in school poverty and test scores, occurs between urban and suburban school districts. Significant segregation and inequality also occur between and within suburban school districts. Suburban stratification is a key feature of the geography of inequality, warranting theoretical and methodological attention.

  • suburbs
  • racial-ethnic segregation
  • racial-ethnic inequality
  • schools
  • © 2023 Russell Sage Foundation. Owens, Ann, and Peter Rich. 2023. “Little Boxes All the Same? Racial-Ethnic Segregation and Educational Inequality Across the Urban-Suburban Divide.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 9(2): 26–54. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2023.9.2.02. Authors contributed equally to this article. The authors are grateful to the volume editors and participants in the volume conference at the Russell Sage Foundation for constructive feedback. Direct correspondence to: Ann Owens, at annowens{at}usc.edu, Department of Sociology, University of Southern California, UPC MC 1059, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1059, United States; Peter Rich, at peter.rich{at}cornell.edu, Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, Cornell University, Martha Van Rensselaer Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, United States

Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences: 9 (2)
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Vol. 9, Issue 2
1 Feb 2023
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Little Boxes All the Same? Racial-Ethnic Segregation and Educational Inequality Across the Urban-Suburban Divide
Ann Owens, Peter Rich
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Feb 2023, 9 (2) 26-54; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2023.9.2.02

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Little Boxes All the Same? Racial-Ethnic Segregation and Educational Inequality Across the Urban-Suburban Divide
Ann Owens, Peter Rich
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Feb 2023, 9 (2) 26-54; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2023.9.2.02
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    • SCHOOL DISTRICTS AND THE URBAN-SUBURBAN DIVIDE
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Keywords

  • suburbs
  • racial-ethnic segregation
  • racial-ethnic inequality
  • schools

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