Educational Districting: How Minnesota’s Educational Boundaries Are Exacerbating Racial Disparities.

Fall 2020

Abstract

Utilizing cutting-edge geospatial and redistricting technologies, I investigate the impacts of redistricting at the school district and attendance zone level. First analyzing the existing boundaries then generating alternative districting plans, I explore if current boundaries are giving a specific racial group an educational advantage over another. This “educational gerrymandering” has normative implications as well as empirical realities for student achievement disparities within a state. I focus on educational boundaries within Minnesota, specifically, 79 school districts and 331 attendance zones. Comparing these geographic realities to alternative computer-generated boundaries, I find that, due to histories of red-lining and segregative politics, the existing attendance zones are less racially representative of the underlying population than those computer-generated. A statewide analysis of these educational boundaries allows for data-rich analyses of racial disparities within Minnesota’s education system, including outlier analysis for Congressional Districts with disparate school district and attendance zone demographics. Even in attendance zones which are majority-minority, or majority-white, there are still opportunities for comparative balance across relevant covariates.

Work in progress draft of paper. 

Presented at the American Political Science Association Meeting in 2021, slides here.

Replication code here.