Tyler Simko (Dept of Government), "School Desegregation by Redrawing District Boundaries"
Schools in the United States remain heavily segregated by race and income. Previous work demonstrates districts can reduce segregation between their schools with policies like redrawing attendance zones. Yet, the promise of such policies in many areas is limited by the fact that most school segregation occurs between school districts, and not between schools in the same district. I adapt Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms from political redistricting methodology to redraw school district boundaries that decrease segregation while maintaining desirable criteria like distance to school and using only existing school facilities. Focusing on New Jersey, where the segregation of Black and Hispanic students from White and Asian students is among the worst in the country, I demonstrate that redrawing school districts could reduce nearly 40% of existing segregation in the median New Jersey county, compared to less than 5% for redrawing attendance zones alone. Finally, I show how my proposed methodology can be applied to as few as two districts to reduce segregation in proposed “mergers,” a consolidation of small districts into one large district.
The American Politics Research Workshop (Gov 3004) presents an opportunity for graduate students and Harvard faculty to present and receive feedback on their current research. The workshop highlights key theoretical and empirical findings from Harvard affiliates on topics related to American politics.
All interested Harvard affiliates are invited to attend.
LOCATION:CGIS Knafel, room K354 or Online via Zoom STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20230926T160000Z DTEND:20230926T173000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR