Exploring Variations in the Ethnic Compositions of Public Schools and the Neighborhoods They Reside In

Noli Brazil, University of California, Berkeley

Recent court ordered releases of mandated desegregation plans and increased efforts in implementing school choice policies have sparked emotional debate around the concept of student diversity within schools. With the confluence of recent demographic changes and the diffusion of controversial school policies, the relation between the racial distribution at school and residential levels is ambiguous. As a first step to eliminate this ambiguity and to measure the possible disconnect between school and neighborhood diversity, this study compares levels of residential and public school racial composition and segregation in California. The study offers a descriptive mapping of how many and which regions in California contain public schools in which the predominant race in its neighborhood is either under or over represented. I then measure and locate differences in segregation levels between school and neighborhood. Finally, I explore the kinds of students that live in regions of equal or contrasting school and neighborhood diversity