George Galster (Wayne State Univ) and Anna Santiago (Case Western Reserve Univ) and Lisa Stack (Wayne State Univ)
Award Recipients
George Galster (Wayne State University), Anna Santiago (Case Western Reserve University) and Lisa Stack (Wayne State University)
Award Committee Assessment
Papers presented at the 2014 UAA Conference in San Antonio, Texas and subsequently submitted to the Journal of Urban Affairs (JUA) in July 2014, were considered for this award. All submitted papers went through the normal JUA double-blind peer review process. Those surviving papers became the award nominee finalists.
We are pleased to present this year’s award to George Galster, Anna Santiago, and Lisa Stack for “School Performance of Low Income Latino and African American Youth: The Role of Neighborhood Context”. Galster, Santiago and Stack raised the following question: Do the geographic contexts in which disadvantaged children are raised influence whether they have difficulties in elementary school? Using data dating back to the 1960s from the Denver Housing Authority’s procedure for allocating families to dwellings, they show several socio-economic and demographic indicators that are statistically and substantively important predictors of low-income children’s problems in school. While their findings are consistent with existing data, their approach is unique. Their work leads to future endeavors that might consider how interventions at school or neighborhood level may correct these disparities.
Award Committee
Chair William Holt (Birmingham-Southern College); Renia Ehrenfeucht (University of New Orleans); Desiree Fields (University of Sheffield); Dawn Jourdan (University of Oklahoma); Alex Schwartz (The New School)
