With increasing evidence about the disproportionate impact of discipline decisions and the profound equity implications associated with the school-to-prison pipeline, studying efforts to get it right are critically important to making sure a safe and supportive school environment is fostered for all students.

The separate and unequal reality of America’s public schools today is the remnant of an outdated system originally designed during a dark chapter of our past – including public housing and transportation policies and official business practices that intentionally segregated where and how people of color lived. In this panel, panelists discuss inequity in school attendance zones, the impact of local governance on school systems, and the troubling history of redlining in education.

In the wake of the Great Depression, neighborhoods across the U.S. were assigned “mortgage security” grades, which lenders would use to provide or deny home loans to residents. Those grades, which disproportionately harmed communities of color, may still be impacting schools and students nearly a century later, according to a new working paper by Harvard University researchers Dylan Lukes and Christopher Cleveland. Lukes and Cleveland join CPRE Knowledge Hub managing editor Keith Heumiller to discuss their research, which found that schools located in historically redlined neighborhoods have lower district-level per-pupil revenues, less diverse student populations, and worse average test scores than those in higher-graded neighborhoods. They also discuss some key takeaways for policymakers, districts, education researchers, and other stakeholders across the U.S.