Assessing neighborhood racial segregation and macroeconomic effects in the education of African Americans

Johnson, Odis Jr. (2010). Assessing neighborhood racial segregation and macroeconomic effects in the education of African Americans. Review of Educational Research, 80(4), 527-575.

We still have an achievement gap in the United States, and urban African American students still are one group that is on the low side of that gap. This article looks at some of the literature that has attempted to assess why that occurs, specifically research that links achievement to the neighborhoods where urban African American children, who often are also living in poverty, grow up. Various aspects of neighborhoods that have been linked to achievement have been explored in this line of research. Johnson here reviews 45 studies, under the following subtopics:

1. Neighborhood joblessness effects
2. Neighborhood segregation effects
3. Neighborhood disadvantage effects
4. Neighborhood social process effects
5. Residential opportunities (i.e., the ability to move to a "better" neighborhood)

. The studies are clearly organized in five helpful tables.

The upshot of all this is that we really still don’t know exactly what accounts for the lower performance of urban African American students on standardized tests, or how this achievement gap might be most effectively addressed. When one looks at the tables of the studies, one sees a large number of insignificant findings. Even when there are significant results, they are not strong, or they are mixed. Probably, as Johnson suggests, it is not that these neighborhood factors have no effect, but that our research designs just are not good at teasing those effects out. I also suggest that we are looking at some really complex variables and interrelationships here, and those are not going to be easy to capture. Probably, all kinds of variables interlock in ways unique to each urban community to produce the problem. Still, it makes sense to me that if the economic stress in urban communities was alleviated, there would have to be positive effects on education. We need to find better ways to make the case for that, though. I worry that with no significant effects shown for some of these variables, there will be an element in our society that uses those findings as support for not assisting families and communities in the urban core.

Although no answers are provided here, I found Johnson’s clear organization of studies into the five separate tables helpful. It helped me think of the various aspects of urban neighborhoods that might affect children’s schooling and achievement. The exposition here underscored the complexities of urban neighborhoods and the challenges that are faced by families and educators who live and work there. This article, by at least providing a clearer understanding of the problem, may lead to research that will do a better job of addressing those complexities than we have done so far, and perhaps show us some good ways to improve the situation.