Scouring of 2000 and 2020 U.S. Census Bureau reports and national school enrollment data revealed predominantly white suburban districts became more integrated and the isolation of students of color in urban districts intensified during the 20-year span.

Researchers at the University of Kansas’ School of Education and Human Services said the findings could assist professionals or politicians keen to address inequities in educational opportunity.

“One of the biggest findings is suburban districts, which are typically viewed as white-flight districts, are clearly seeing more diversity. But students of color in urban districts are seeing more isolation,” said Bryan Mann, associate professor of education leadership and policy studies at KU.

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“Typically, conversations about equity and equality focus on urban areas,” Mann said. “I think it’s important that we don’t just consider inequality as an urban issue.”

Work by Mann and colleagues showed the proportion of suburban districts with 90 percent white student enrollment declined from 91.3 percent in 2000 to 80.2 percent in 2020. More than 56 percent of majority-white districts experienced 10 percent growth among students of color over the two decades.

Meanwhile, researchers said, the roster of urban districts with 90 percent or more students of color expanded from 8.6 percent in 2000 to 16.7 percent in 2020.

The study, co-written with KU doctoral students Daniah Hammouda and Ryan Fitzpatrick, was published in the journal American Educational Research Association Open. The central objective was to better understand how school demographics and segregation changed in the first two decades of the 20th century.

In Kansas and other states, a portion of white families transitioned to suburban districts following the landmark 1954 school desegregation decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

White flight was a direct challenge to the Supreme Court’s conclusion that separating children in public schools based on race violated the U.S. Constitution.

The KU study explored Census data to compare the demographic makeup of communities with ethnic and racial data from schools. With an assist from geographic information system technology, the KU researchers connected data to a map so it could be analyzed for patterns or relationships.

In addition, the researchers relied on a technique that held school district boundaries consistent during the 20-year period.

All data in the KU study was associated with elementary school districts. It didn’t include information from Tennessee, Alaska and Hawaii because data to make comparisons wasn’t available.

Mann said the study could be useful to individuals striving to understand the makeup of U.S. schools and develop policy to help students gain better access to equitable educational opportunities.

“There are different reasons in different states for changing demographics, but it is happening nearly everywhere,” he said. “This can motivate more research that can break out the data into more detail. We know these patterns are happening for a lot of reasons, and I think examining them further will be the next big step in educational research.”

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