School of Education Events
[PAST EVENT] Faculty Research Brief: The Enduring Nature of School Segregation
School segregation along the lines of class and race remains a defining feature of American life. Despite decades of research and various policies aimed at addressing inequalities in children’s school contexts, important questions remain about how families of different economic and racialized backgrounds come to enroll in schools that vary in terms of the resources and educational opportunities they provide to students and the consequences of these inequalities.
In this talk, Dr. Boselovic will share findings from his research exploring how low-income parents chose schools in the context of an experimental housing intervention in metropolitan Seattle. This intervention provided resources to address the financial and residential barriers that low-income families often face to enrolling in lower-poverty schools. Multiple interviews with more than 100 parents over the course of four years reveal how parents chose schools in this unique context and the ways they compared higher- and lower-poverty schools after moving to lower-poverty neighborhoods. This work sheds light on why schools remain so segregated in the United States and points to potential avenues for policy and practice to address educational inequalities.
Dr. Joseph L. Boselovic is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Education, Democracy, & Justice at the William & Mary School of Education. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from Johns Hopkins University.
Sponsored by: School of Education