Mapping Advanced Coursework: The Role of School Attendance Boundaries and Income Segregation

School Attendance Boundaries (SABs), the geographical boundaries that determine which school a student attends, can perpetuate income segregation in public school campuses by dividing households into one school or another. The goal of this study is to quantify the impact of school attendance boundaries on access to advanced coursework in the school districts of the Greater Houston area. Data was used from the TEA and CREATE for insight into advanced coursework, the Census for values pertaining to wealth distribution in the Houston area, and the NESC for the geographical data necessary for the School Attendance Boundaries. Through the results of this study, there was a significant relationship between both the high school campuses in the greater Houston area which have high median household income and advanced coursework access, as well as a relationship between higher levels of advanced coursework and income segregation. However, the irregularity of school attendance boundaries showed to have little correlation with income segregation.