CREATING EQUITABLE STUDENT OUTCOMES: How Housing and Education Policy are Intertwined

Today, the Enterprise Policy Development & Research team released a new report examining the connections between education and housing in providing opportunity. Creating Equitable Student Outcomes: How Housing and Education Policy are Intertwined looks at how segregation in education and housing prevents children across socioeconomic and racial/ethnic backgrounds from achieving the greatest possible academic success. It details the ways in which the United States has tried over the years to address disparities in academic achievement, and how housing policies and practices remain connected to those efforts. Access the report here.

"Throughout American history, racial segregation in schools has largely been the result of residential segregation. While Jim Crow laws in the South prior to the Brown ruling allowed for school segregation regardless of residential patterns, black and white communities generally existed separately from one another. As desegregation took place across the United States, many households made major shifts in choosing where to live. Numerous studies have examined the extent to which school desegregation and racial bias played a role in those shifts."

In San Francisco, the Walking School Bus program is designed to lower absenteeism while helping students begin their day in a safe and healthy fashion.