The presence of White students and the emergence of Black-White within-school inequalities: two interaction-based mechanisms

04/10/2023

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by   João M. Souto-Maior, et al.

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This article investigates mechanism-based explanations for a well-known empirical pattern in sociology of education, namely, that Black-White unequal access to school resources – defined as advanced coursework – is the highest in racially diverse and majority-White schools. Through an empirically calibrated and validated agent-based model, this study explores the dynamics of two qualitatively informed mechanisms, showing (1) that we have reason to believe that the presence of White students in school can influence the emergence of Black-White advanced enrollment disparities and (2) that such influence can represent another possible explanation for the macro-level pattern of interest. Results contribute to current scholarly accounts of within-school inequalities, shedding light into policy strategies to improve the educational experiences of Black students in racially integrated settings.