Date of Award

Spring 2025

Project Type

Dissertation

Program or Major

Education

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

First Advisor

Todd A DeMitchell

Second Advisor

Suzanne Graham

Third Advisor

Preston Green

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the persistence of double segregation—the racial and socioeconomic isolation of students—in New York City public schools. Using a three-article, mixed-methods design grounded in Gloria Ladson-Billings’ education debt framework, it explores how legal precedent, school-level demographics, and community perspectives interact to sustain unequal educational opportunity.The first article provides a legal-historical analysis tracing desegregation efforts from Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) to IntegrateNYC v. State of New York (2024). Using the IRAC method, it examines how federal courts shifted from enforcing desegregation to limiting race-conscious remedies, leading advocates to pursue equity through state-based legal strategies. The article highlights the increasing use of New York’s “sound basic education” clause as a tool for addressing both racial and socioeconomic inequality, concluding that legal victories must be paired with policy reform and targeted investment. The second article analyzes demographic changes in New York City’s single-race traditional public schools between 2015 and 2023. While the overall number of single-race schools declined slightly, socioeconomic stratification intensified—particularly among predominantly Hispanic schools, which now represent most extreme-poverty, single-race schools. Correlational analyses reveal that middle schools contributing more to the racial isolation and poverty exposure of White and Asian students are moderately associated with higher average achievement, while those contributing more to Black and Hispanic students’ segregation are weakly or negatively associated. The study uniquely applies school-level coefficients from segregation indices, offering a localized, group-specific analysis that advances current research. The third article presents a qualitative case study of Brownsville, Brooklyn, using deductive thematic analysis to highlight how community members interpret the effects of double segregation and disinvestment. Through the lens of historical, economic, socio-political, and moral debt, stakeholders describe how they persist through neglect and undermine opportunity and institutional trust. Together, these essays provide a multidimensional understanding of double segregation and through the lens of the education debt.

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