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

Metropolitan Area Formations of Urban and School District Geography

Source: Authors’ tabulation.

Note: Largest city place jurisdictions from 2016 are presented in dark grey fill. Overlaying lines depict school district boundaries; dark lines are urban school district boundaries as identified in our schematic (see text for details and justification).

Decomposition of Urban versus Suburban Metropolitan Segregation in Public Schools and Neighborhoods, by Racial-Ethnic Dyad

Source: Authors’ tabulation.

Note: Segregation is measured with Theil’s Information Theory Index (H) on a scale of 0 to 100. Metropolitan area division samples are restricted to those with a single urban school district surrounded by many suburban districts and with fifty fourth grade students from each racial-ethnic dyad enrolled in public schools. Residential counts do not distinguish between Hispanic and non-Hispanic ethnicity for Black and Asian residents age five through nine. See table 3 for values used to generate this figure; table A.1 reports values for additional metropolitan area division types.

Decomposition of Urban Versus Suburban Metropolitan Inequality in Public School Free-Reduced Lunch Composition, by Racial-Ethnic Dyad

Source: Authors’ tabulation.

Note: Inequality between racial-ethnic dyads is measured with Theil’s Index (T). Inequality in public school free or reduced lunch composition corresponds to panel A in table 4; table A.2 reports values for additional metropolitan area division types.