SOC 395—Urban Schools and Communities

This course examines the close relationship between urban public schools in the United States and the neighborhoods and communities in which they are located. In doing so, the course explores how and why a child’s home address is one of the major factors influencing the quality of education that s/he receives. It also introduces various policies and mechanisms that public leaders have pursued in an effort to disrupt the school-neighborhood connection that results in racial and socioeconomic inequities in access to quality education. Topics include: the relationship between school and neighborhood segregation; the relationship between neighborhood conditions and academic performance; how families decide where to live and where to send their children to school; how school districts give families choices; how gentrifying neighborhoods affect the demographic composition of schools; and how school disciplinary practices differ on the basis of race, class, and location.