RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Educational Gerrymandering? Race and Attendance Boundaries in a Demographically Changing Suburb
JF Harvard Educational Review
JO herp
FD Harvard Educational Press
SP 580
OP 612
DO 10.17763/haer.83.4.k385375245677131
VO 83
IS 4
A1 Siegel-Hawley, Genevieve
YR 2013
UL http://harvardeducationalreview.org/content/83/4/580.abstract
AB In this article, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley illuminates the challenges and opportunities posed by demographic change in suburban school systems. As expanding student populations stretch the enrollment capacities of existing schools in suburban communities, new schools are built and attendance lines are redrawn. This redistricting process can be used either to foster school diversity or to exacerbate racial isolation. Drawing on data from the U.S. Census, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and the school district, along with mapping software from Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Siegel-Hawley examines the relationship between overcrowding, racial isolation, and the original, proposed, and final high school attendance zones in a changing suburban district. Findings indicate that school officials responsible for the rezoning process failed to embrace the growing diversity of the school system, choosing instead to solidify extreme patterns of racial isolation within high school attendance areas. The segregative impact of the district's new attendance zones may be subject to legal scrutiny, a consequence that could—and should—discourage other school systems from adopting similarly harmful redistricting policies.