2015 Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture: Anonymity No More: Seeing Our Neighbors in Ferguson and the Implications for Social Policy

Abstract

Ferguson, Missouri, has been characterized as an archetype of structural inequality and segregation. Several questions guide this investigation of Ferguson and its surrounding region. How did policies, practices, and folkways help to create the conditions in Ferguson and the broader metropolitan region? The regional segregation regime’s history provides a background to better understand current conditions. What is the existing state of affairs for young persons and their families in the region? To address this question, social epidemiological methods and geospatial analysis inform the development of a set of visuals to determine if racial segregation, economic opportunity, health and developmental outcomes, and education-related outcomes are spatially arranged. The authors found that these indicators of well-being are spatially arranged and concentrated; thus, they raise another question: How does a politically fragmented region intervene to disrupt concentrated disadvantage? As Ferguson and the region seek social and education reform, the final section offers several recommendations to improve education outcomes through broader economic strategy and social policy.

Residential Segregation Across Metro St. Louis School Districts: Examining the Intersection of Two Spatial Dimensions

“…The St. Louis interdistrict desegregation transfer program generated many positive outcomes. An education and economic case can be made for reestablishing a robust VICC-like model in St. Louis (Tate & Jones, 2017). Efforts to make school transfer more accessible to students in low-performing districts have been met with political resistance.…”

“…12 a robust VICC-like model in St. Louis (Tate & Jones, 2017). Efforts to make school transfer more accessible to students in low-performing districts have been met with political resistance.…”

“…This AERA Open Special Topic aims to better understand the relationship between geography and place and current educational policy developments while also presenting novel research approaches. One well-established and dynamic social problem related to race and poverty involves the trends, patterns, and effects of segregation in education (Tate & Jones, 2017). Education operates as a spatially defined enterprise situated in designated geographies.…”

The Segregation Pandemic: Brown as Treatment or Placebo?

“…Segregation is the disease. Signs and symptoms of the disease include unequal access to quality schools, diminished social capital and poorer health outcomes for the outgroup, and exclusionary zoning laws and practices to restrict access to publicly funded community resources such as parks to play baseball, beaches, or other forms of wellness and recreation (Kahrl, 2018; Tate & Jones, 2017). Figure 4 illustrates the disease source, disease, and symptoms.…”

2018 -- "SUM" is Better than Nothing: Toward a Sociology of Urban Mathematics Education

“…A regime is a public-private partnership designed to produce a specific goal. By way of law, public policy, and social custom across urban communities in America, segregation regimes framed the nature of opportunity in local economies (Rothstein, 2017;Tate & Jones, 2017). Federal lawmakers and policy elites; local municipality leaders; and private sector actors, such as real estate brokers, churches, financial institutions, and neighborhood associations, collaborated to restrict African American families' access to quality neighborhoods.…”