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Duke Economics Working Paper #98-12

Public School Segregation in Metropolitan Areas

Charles T. Clotfelter

Abstract

This paper presents measures of segregation in public schools for metropolitan areas. It shows that, not only are metropolitan areas very segregated, most of that segregtion is due to racial disparities between districts rather than segregative patterns within districts. Metropolitan areas in the South and West tend to have larger districts, and thus feature less fragmentation by school district. Segregation at the metropolitan level appears to vary systematically with size, racial mix, and region. Because larger metropolitan areas tend to have more jurisdictions and exhibit greater differences in racial composition among jurisdictions, measured segregation rises with size, as measured by school enrollment.

Published in Land Economics, Vol. 75, No. 4, November 1999, pp. 487-504.