Ohio Trends

Explore the interactive data application below to view information and visualizations on individual Ohio school districts, as well as statewide averages. Use the radio buttons at the top to select specific district-level measures, and the checkboxes at the bottom to explore statewide trends. For missing or unavailable data in some years, the map display is empty. Check back soon, as more projects and applications will be added over time.

Calculating Segregation Indices

The segregation indices available in the application are calculated using the following formulas. These measures help quantify the extent of racial segregation between minority (Min) and non-minority (nonMin) student populations across schools (s) within a district (d). Although I use minority and non-minority here, these indices could be calculated in various ways (i.e., Black-White exposure, Hispanic-White exposure, etc.)

Relative Exposure Index

This index measures the difference in expected exposure to minority students between minority and non-minority students. In other words, it compares how likely a minority student is to encounter another minority student relative to a non-minority student encountering a minority student within the same district.

$$ \text{Relative Exposure} = \sum_{s=1}^{N}\left(\frac{Min_{s}}{Min_{d}} \times \frac{Min_{s}}{Min_{s} + nonMin_{s}}\right) - \sum_{s=1}^{N}\left(\frac{nonMin_{s}}{nonMin_{d}} \times \frac{Min_{s}}{Min_{s} + nonMin_{s}}\right) $$

Isolation Index

This index measures the expected exposure of minority students to other minority students. Essentially, it measures the extent to which minority students are exposed to students of their own race within schools, compared to the overall composition of the district.

$$ \text{Isolation} = \sum_{s=1}^{N}\left(\frac{Min_{s}}{Min_{d}} \times \frac{Min_{s}}{Min_{s} + nonMin_{s}}\right) $$

Dissimilarity Index

This index measures the proportion of schools' minority students who would need to change schools in order for minority and non-minority students to be evenly distributed across the district. It represents the percentage of minority students that would need to move to a different school to achieve a perfectly even distribution across the district.

$$ \text{Dissimilarity Index} = \frac{1}{2}\sum_{s=1}^{N}\left|\frac{Min_{s}}{Min_{d}} - \frac{nonMin_{s}}{nonMin_{d}}\right| $$