There Goes the Neighborhood: Examining School-Level Impacts and Responses to Gentrification in Three Urban Districts

Terrance Green

A growing number of cities across the United States are experiencing gentrification in historically disinvested and racially segregated urban neighborhoods (Pearman & Swain, 2017). While gentrification has been a concern for urban cities for over 50 years, the manifestations of gentrification have become more complex and widespread in the past two decades, as gentrification has expanded from downtowns to neighborhoods across cities. Gentrification has thus garnered considerable public debate and empirical attention. The empirical research indicates that gentrification can result in the restructuring of urban neighborhoods through the displacement of low-income residents of color, the loss of their culture and institutions, and the influx of middle to upper-class whites. Yet, we know less about the complex ways that neighborhood gentrification influences schools across place and time.As such, this study will compare how neighborhood gentrification plays out and influences public schools in three U.S. cities (total) with early, moderate, and extreme stages of neighborhood gentrification to better understand the complexities of gentrification across place and time. The study will also examine how school-based actors understand and respond to the impacts of neighborhood gentrification on local schools. Finally, findings from this study can help policymakers as well as district and school leaders develop effective policies and practical interventions for urban schools located in gentrifying neighborhoods.

About Terrance Green

Terrance L. Green is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. His research has examined: 1) how school reform intersects with equitable community development, with a focus on school and community leaders and 2) how geography influences educational opportunity for children of color in urban school districts. Terrance’s research has been featured in Teachers College Record, Educational Administration Quarterly, and Journal of School Leadership. In 2017, Terrance received the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Division A (Administration, Organization, and Leadership), and in 2016, he received the William J. Davis Award for the most outstanding article published in a volume of Educational Administration Quarterly. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis, and a B.S. in Biology Education from Kentucky State University, a Historically Black College & University (HBCU). Terrance is a former high school science teacher.