1. Racism & Educational Inequality in the Lives of African-American Youth
Week 2: African-American Youth Yesterday & Today – A Policy Perspective
Eve L. Ewing - A-111M - Harvard Graduate School of Education, Spring 2016

2. Today Finish discussion of last week’s readings
Discussion of this week’s readings
“The Problem We All Live With” – listening & analysis
Break
Lecture: The persistence of segregation
Activity: What would you do?
Open discussion/closing thoughts
Eve L. Ewing - A-111M - Harvard Graduate School of Education, Spring 2016

3. “The Problem We All Live With” Norman Rockwell (1964)
Eve L. Ewing - A-111M - Harvard Graduate School of Education, Spring 2016

4. The Persistence of Segregation
Dissimilarity index: a measure of what proportion of people would have to move in order for a place to be perfectly integrated. Over 0.60 considered “high”
At the pace of the decline in Black-white segregation since 1990, it would take 150 years to achieve a low level of black-white segregation (0.30 or less)
As of 2010 only 5.15% of all metropolitan census tracts nationwide could be considered white- Black integrated communities (10–50% Black residents and at least 40% white residents) (Krysan, Crowder, and Bader, 2014)
Dissimilarity Indices (Measures of Residential Segregation)
for American Metropolitan Areas
1980
2010
Black-White
0.73
0.59
Latino-White
0.50
0.48
Asian-White
0.41
Eve L. Ewing - A-111M - Harvard Graduate School of Education, Spring 2016

5. White Families & School Choice
Saporito & Hanley (2014): from 1970 to 2010, the proportion of Black children in a community remained a statistically significant predictor of white private school enrollment, even when compared to socioeconomic status
“As white individuals seek neighborhoods and schools with higher proportions of white and wealthy people, the cumulative consequences of these choices leads to group-level inequality in which members of racially and economically disadvantaged groups are isolated in poor and minority neighborhoods and schools” (p. 66).
Eve L. Ewing - A-111M - Harvard Graduate School of Education, Spring 2016

6. White Families & Housing Choice
Jargowsky (2014): High degree of segregation between white affluent households and all Black, Latino, and Asian households, including those of affluent families
Poor white households & affluent white households: 0.41
Latino/Asian affluent households & affluent white households: 0.57
Black affluent households & white affluent households: 0.67
Eve L. Ewing - A-111M - Harvard Graduate School of Education, Spring 2016

7. School Choice & Housing Choice Collide
White residents tend to overestimate their risk of being victimized by robbery or burglary based on the proportion of Black residents in an area (Quillian and Pager, 2001)
White and Latino parents are more likely to leave public schools for private or magnet schools as the percentage of Black students in their local schools increases (Fairlie, 2002; Saporito & Sohoni, 2006)
White participants shown videos of neighborhoods and told that they were identical in every way other than racial composition rated the Black neighborhoods as more dangerous, more likely to lose property value, and likely to have poor-quality schools (Krysan, Couper, Farley, and Forman, 2009)
Eve L. Ewing - A-111M - Harvard Graduate School of Education, Spring 2016

8. What would you do? You can be real you, ideal you, or average citizen
What kind of school district would you seek for your (imaginary) child?
What factors influence your decision? (Write these down.)
Consider….
Academic outcomes
School & district composition
Where your home would be
Classroom experiences (e.g. American Promise)
Eve L. Ewing - A-111M - Harvard Graduate School of Education, Spring 2016