Shelby McNeill and Dr. Kristie J.R. Phillips, Department of Sociology

Introduction

In 1954—ten years before the Civil Rights Act was passed—the Supreme Court ruled on the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. In their ruling, the Court held that state-imposed racial segregation created “inherently unequal” schools that were unconstitutional. Thus, public schools became the first institutions to be held accountable for overturning Jim Crow segregation practices and shepherding in a new era of race relations. In addition to promoting equitable access to quality schools, Brown was also intended to “alter the attitudes and socialization of all children—beginning at the youngest ages” (Johnson 2011:38) and increase interracial contact (Clotfelter 2004). Moreover, exposure to racially diverse experiences early in life was hypothesized to decrease fear and anxiety that might otherwise be associated with interracial interactions. Thus, as described by perpetuation theory, early experiences with diversity would increase one’s likelihood of participating in diverse settings later in life (Braddock 1980; McPartland and Braddock 1981). In their more recent work, Braddock and Gonzalez (2010) further expanded perpetuation theory by arguing that students who participate in ethnically diverse experience early in life are not only more likely to participate in ethnically diverse experiences later in life, but so is the future generation of their children. However, few studies have offered empirical tests of the intergenerational consequences of attending an ethnically diverse school.

In order to better understand the social processes associated with diversity, this study offers a test of the intergenerational consequences of perpetuation theory by examining outcomes associated with attending ethnically diverse schools and living in ethnically diverse neighborhoods early in life. Utilizing longitudinal data collected from Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), one of the most successfully desegregated school districts in the nation (Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, et al. 2007), we specifically test whether exposure to higher levels of diversity in high schools and high school neighborhoods is associated with students living in more ethnically diverse neighborhoods during early and mid-adulthood.

Methodology

In order to examine whether exposure to higher levels of diversity early in life is associated with living in a more ethnically diverse neighborhood later in life, we examined a cohort of 5,249 JCPS students who graduated in 1997. To determine the level of ethnic diversity of students’ residential neighborhoods 13 years after graduation, we matched the 1997 JCPS graduates with their corresponding addresses in 2010. These addresses were then matched with census tracts and block groups (BGs), along with corresponding 2010 U.S. census data describing the ethnic composition of each BG. This information was made available by the U.S. Census Bureau via Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping software. We also used official JCPS student records to create student background measures. This information included students’ race and gender, whether students participated in free or reduced lunch or high school choice programs, as well as the total number of years students attended high school in the district and whether students lived in the same neighborhood 13 years after graduation. From these student records, school-level aggregate measures were also created, which included measures of school ethnic diversity, poverty, and size. Lastly, to differentiate between the effects of students’ schools and the neighborhoods where they lived during high school, we included measures of neighborhood ethnic diversity, social advantage, and economic deprivation.

To address the extent to which the level of ethnic diversity of students’ residences after high school is predicted by the level of ethnic diversity in students’ high schools and high school neighborhoods, we used cross-classified models (HCM) where students were cross-classified by neighborhoods and schools. The HCM framework accounts for the simultaneous nesting of students within neighborhoods and schools, even though neighborhoods are not necessarily nested within schools.

Results

Our analyses suggest that the two most important predictors of the ethnic diversity of students’ neighborhoods 13 years after graduation are the ethnic diversity of the neighborhood where they grew up and the ethnic diversity of their high school. While the ethnic diversity of the neighborhood where students lived while attending high school was the strongest predictor of the ethnic diversity of students’ neighborhoods five and 13 years after graduation, the relative diversity of students’ high schools was also significant. This finding is important because it is one of the few predictors of residential diversity that can be addressed and manipulated through educational policy. We also found that although black students and students of other races are, on average, more likely to live in more heterogeneous neighborhoods 13 years after graduation than white students, the effect associated with the ethnic diversity of students’ schools is similar for all groups of students. In other words, attending an ethnically diverse school does not seem to affect black students any differently than white students when predicting the ethnic diversity of students’ neighborhoods five and 13 years after graduation.

Discussion/Conclusions

Because our work focuses on an outcome—neighborhood diversity later in life—that is likely to influence the level of diversity experienced in the early lives of the children of former JCPS students, it offers empirical support for the recently theorized intergenerational consequences associated with perpetuation theory (Braddock and Gonzalez 2010). We demonstrate that former JCPS students who experienced diversity in their schools and neighborhoods early in life were more likely to live in diverse neighborhoods later in life. Thus, it can reasonably be assumed that their children will be more likely to live their early lives experiencing higher levels of ethnic diversity in their neighborhoods. Further, because neighborhood diversity tends to be strongly related to school diversity (Mickelson 2011; Siegel-Hawley 2013), these children would also presumably attend more diverse schools as a result of their parents’ early exposure to diversity. Thus, as hypothesized by Braddock and Gonzalez (2010), early exposure to diversity fosters intergenerational, self-perpetuating consequences. Even though our results offer a compelling context from which the intergenerational consequences associated with early experiences with ethnic diversity can be inferred, we suggest that future research attempt to offer more direct tests of the intergenerational hypothesis associated with perpetuation theory.