Across the United States one would be hard pressed to find an urban center that has been unaffected by the phenomenon known as gentrification. From substantial economic growth to the displacement of long-term residents, the benefits and criticisms of the process of gentrification are wide ranging and extend over a thorough body of literature. Commonly associated with increasing levels of education and higher resident incomes, gentrification should be a boon to struggling public schools that are continually plagued by generational poverty. Unfortunately, the continued widening of the education gap and increasing racial segregation in our public schools suggest that any benefits of gentrification are not translating to equity in our public schools. By looking at the city of Portland, this paper attempts to quantitatively explore the complicated relationship among gentrifying neighborhoods, school performance on the 3rd grade standardized Math and Reading tests, and racial demographics of the students. This paper will follow the methods established by Keels et al. in their work on gentrification and school achievement in Chicago. By using 2000 Census and the 2015 ACS data and spatial analysis and mapping in GIS, gentrifying school neighborhoods in Portland will be identified and analysis of student test performance and racial demographics will be conducted to determine if any relationship exists. By exploring how these schools have changed both academically and racially we can expand educational and urban theory around the process of gentrification.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pdx.edu/oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:open_access_etds-5939 |
| Date | 11 April 2019 |
| Creators | Ward, Justin Joseph |
| Publisher | PDXScholar |
| Source Sets | Portland State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Dissertations and Theses |
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