Racial Diversity and School Performance: A School Location Approach

The Impact of Race, School Diversity and Racial Congruence on School Connectedness

School connectedness, encompassing positive feelings toward teachers and peers and a sense of belonging at school, has been touted as a critical factor in promoting student achievement and reducing youth risk behaviors. The literature has been mixed in terms of understanding the relationship between race, racial congruence and school diversity’s influence on school connectedness, particularly f...

School Culture and School Performance

School Breakfast Program and school performance.

To test the hypothesis that participation in the School Breakfast Program by low-income children is associated with improvements in standardized achievement test scores and in rates of absence and tardiness, children in grades 3 through 6 were studied in the Lawrence, Mass, public schools, where the School Breakfast Program was begun at the start of the second semester 1986-1987 school year. Th...

School Segregation and Racial Academic Achievement Gaps

Although it is clear that racial segregation is linked to academic achievement gaps, the mechanisms underlying this link have been debated since Coleman published his eponymous 1966 report. In this paper, I examine sixteen distinct measures of segregation to determine which is most strongly associated with academic achievement gaps. I find very clear evidence that one aspect of segregation in p...

Racial Threat and Punitive School Discipline

Tests of the racial threat hypothesis, linking the racial composition of place to various measures of social control, find that where there are greater percentages of blacks, more punitive criminal justice policies are implemented. Just as the criminal justice system continues to get tougher on crime despite stagnant crime rates, it is also clear that schools are becoming harsher toward student...