"This School’s Gone Downhill": School Integration and Perceived School Quality

Kimberly Goyette, Temple University
Joshua Freely, Temple University
Danielle Farrie, Temple University

This research questions the extent to which residents’ perceptions of declining school quality in the past five years are tied to measurable indicators of this decline, such as decreasing test scores and rising incidences of school violence, and the extent to which they may be related to increasing school integration. We use unique data from the 2003-2004 Philadelphia Area Study that link neighborhood residents with their closest elementary, middle, and secondary schools. We find that even when controlling for the current characteristics of these schools, and changes in standardized test scores and rates of violent incidents over five years, a greater than 2% increase in the percentage of a school that is Black over the five year period affects the likelihood of saying school quality has decreased.