Leveraging Integrated Data Systems to Examine the Role of Housing

How does living amid foreclosures, vacant properties, and declining neighborhood stability affect how well a child does in school?

Funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation of Chicago and led by Co-Directors Claudia Coulton and Robert Fischer, the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development has begun a two year study, Leveraging Integrated Data Systems to Examine the Role of Housing, to explore this question, how housing and neighborhood conditions in early childhood affect school readiness and early literacy, by comparing property records and school performance data to determine whether there is a correlation between neighborhood and housing conditions and how well children learn.

This study will highlight the necessity of considering housing as a platform for school readiness. The research may also expand the debate about federal programs—from simply how foreclosure, demolition and rehabilitation affect home values to how they affect children.

Additional reading:

• MacArthur Foundation press release
• Case Western Reserve University press release
• Cleveland Plain Dealer article