ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2698-1482

Date of Award

Spring 2026

Language

English

Embargo Period

4-28-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Sociology

Program

Sociology

First Advisor

Hayward D. Horton

Committee Members

Hayward D. Horton, Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, Julia F. Hastings

Keywords

Gentrification; School Resegregation; Educational Inequality; Neighborhood Effects; Title I Schools; Tallahassee

Subject Categories

Demography, Population, and Ecology | Educational Sociology | Sociology | Urban Studies and Planning

Abstract

This dissertation examines whether neighborhood gentrification in Tallahassee reshaped Title I elementary schools by improving academic outcomes, changing who enrolled, or both, from 1999 to 2015. Using Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Model as a conceptual scaffold, the study situates schools within their neighborhood and district contexts across three nested analytical levels. A two-wave panel design using 2010 and 2015 school-year observations is linked to a 2000 Census baseline to connect school data with spatially weighted neighborhood change indicators. Mixed-effects multilevel models and fixed-effects robustness checks estimate the associations between neighborhood change indicators and two continuous dependent variables: standardized ELA achievement and the Zone of Demographic Shifts (ZDS) index, a newly constructed composite measure of school-level racial and socioeconomic restructuring.

The central finding is a decoupling pattern. Neighborhood income change significantly predicted the ZDS index (b = 8.70, SE = 1.30, p < .001; R² = .76), while population density change showed a positive marginal association (b = 2.58, SE = 1.36, p = .079).

However, no gentrification indicator significantly predicted standardized ELA achievement across the achievement model specifications. School-level poverty, measured by Free or Reduced-Price Lunch percentage, was the most robust correlate of achievement. Together, these results indicate that gentrification reshaped who attended Title I schools without producing measurable gains in standardized achievement for the students who remained.

By centering Tallahassee and introducing the ZDS index, this dissertation shows how gentrification can reorganize school enrollment without producing measurable academic gains for the students who remain.

License

This work is licensed under the University at Albany Standard Author Agreement.

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