Measuring the Black-White Dissimilarity Index in Williamsburg and James City County Public High Schools

Authors

Sylvia Greer, College of William and MaryFollow

Abstract

In 2007, the Williamsburg-James City County (WJCC) School Board chose to open a third high school and redistrict the attendance of their public high schools.

I used a measure of racial unevenness to assess what this decision did to racial segregation in the school district. Using the black-white dissimilarity index, I found that the high schools have had increasing racial segregation from 2000 to 2015, with a significant increase due to the new school.

As the WJCC school board, students, and families move forward, they should be careful to measure and address the levels of segregation in the district.

Recommended Citation

Greer, Sylvia (2018) "Measuring the Black-White Dissimilarity Index in Williamsburg and James City County Public High Schools," Undergraduate Economic Review: Vol. 15: Iss. 1, Article 25.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/uer/vol15/iss1/25