Researchers examine link between
residential and school segregation

School segregation has remained a hot-button political issue since Brown vs. Board of Education, a landmark 1954 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the justices ruled that state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional.

In a new article, “Student Assignment Policies and Racial and Income Segregation of Schools, School Attendance Zones and Neighborhoods,” Erica Frankenberg, professor of education (educational leadership and demography) and director of the Center for Education and Civil Rights, and lead author Kendra Taylor, who received a doctorate from the Department of Education Policy Studies, shed light on how school district leaders’ use of diversity-focused student assignment policies could disrupt the link between residential and school segregation.

The researchers examined racial and income segregation at the neighborhood, school zone and school levels in the districts to explore the relationship between districts’ diversity policies and school, attendance zone and residential segregation. They found that in the context of similar residential segregation, educational segregation varies.

“This highlights that there can be a complex relationship between the different types of segregation that exist within a school district ... and that comparing segregation at these multiple scales can help us understand the dynamics of segregation in school districts and best target potential solutions,” the researchers wrote.

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Students’ sense of belonging related
to mental health during pandemic

Among the many challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented to the higher education community, one of the most serious is arguably the toll on college students’ mental health. Penn State researchers have found that students’ sense of belongingness in a higher education institution not only has an impact on their academic performance but might also buffer them against anxiety and depression amid the global pandemic and a renewed racial awareness in the country.

“The global pandemic has really shone a light on how academics and mental well-being are really intertwined especially for a population like college students,” said Maithreyi Gopalan, assistant professor of education (education and public policy). “I think institutions need to be thinking a lot more about what they are doing to promote students’ sense of belonging and what effect that might have, which goes much beyond academic outcomes.”

In a new paper published recently in the Journal of Adolescent Health, “College Students’ Sense of Belonging and Mental Health Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Gopalan and colleagues at Penn State’s Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Center examine a key protective factor — students’ sense of belonging with their college — to understand how belongingness varies overall and for key sociodemographic groups amid COVID-19; and if feelings of belonging buffer students from adverse mental health in college.

In their paper, Gopalan and colleagues report that studies have shown that students from underrepresented racial/ethnic minority and first-generation backgrounds report lower belonging, which might be damaging to their mental health. Additionally, barriers to belonging might be higher for students transitioning into a new college environment amid the global pandemic.

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Two projects involving Education
faculty receive seed funding

The Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence recently announced the results of its second seed funding competition, awarding more than $96,000 to advance seven interdisciplinary research projects that feature researchers from 11 colleges and institutes, including the College of Education.

The two projects involving College of Education faculty selected for funding are:

• “Automated Techniques for Educational Meta-Analyses to Improve Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of Educational Policy and Classroom Methods,” by Rebecca J. Passonneau, College of Engineering; and Brian Belland, College of Education.
• “Study with Me: Self-Regulated Learning with Virtual Studying Environments and Personalized Study Companion,” by Syed Billah and Prasenjit Mitra, College of Information Sciences and Technology; and Marcela Borge, College of Education.

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