Moving Out and Apart: Race, Poverty, and the Suburbanization of Public School Segregation

Abstract

Purpose: As US suburbs experience profound demographic shifts, scholars have expressed concern of rising segregation among suburban public schools. We extend this work by examining exposure to poverty by race and racial differences in exposure to economic disadvantage in the wake of the Great Recession across a typology of suburban neighborhoods in the Chicago metropolitan area. Research Methods/Approach: We merge enrollment data from schools with census data on the demographic and economic attributes of residents and examine racial differences in exposure to school poverty. Findings: We find intrasuburban variation, with all racial groups seeing a stark increase in economic school segregation between 2007 and 2018, with Whites experiencing the largest growth in inner suburbs, and Black and Hispanics increasingly disadvantaged in outer suburbs. Implications: Our findings underscore complex forms of suburban disadvantage in rapidly diversifying suburbs.