About the Cities, Suburbs, and Schools project:

Our project explores the changing relationship between public schooling and private housing in the metropolitan Hartford region of central Connecticut, from the early twentieth century to the present.

As a multidisciplinary team of scholars, we draw on historical and social science methods to answer questions such as:

• How do we explain variation across the metropolitan region, as some outlying rural towns have risen up to become elite suburban school districts, while other suburban communities have declined in recent years?

• Which types of families have become more likely to participate in city-wide or regional public school choice over time, and why? What factors influence their decision-making about school choice?

Our work has produced several published and unpublished research papers and presentations, as well as policy reports and digital guides for general audiences, such as:
Missing the Goal: A Visual Guide to Sheff v O'Neill School Desegregation
and
SmartChoices: A Digital Guide to Public School Choice in Greater Hartford

Trinity College undergraduates have contributed to this project through the Educational Studies 308: Cities, Suburbs, and Schools seminar, as well as summer research assistantships funded by the Trinity College Faculty Research Committee and other campus grants.

- Jack Dougherty, Project Director
Trinity College, Hartford CT