Taking Socioeconomic Segregation Seriously

In this chapter we discuss the obstacles to effective measurement of socioeconomic status (SES) segregation or analysis of the influence of SES segregation on student outcomes. One key difficulty is the operationalization of the SES construct. Another is the lack of robust longitudinal individual-level data that links students to classrooms and schools, and that has sufficient scope to measure within-school sorting by SES. We also discuss how even the preliminary estimates of SES segregation pose serious challenges to researchers and policymakers.