Kfir Mordechay

Biography

Professor Kfir Mordechay’s research focuses on how social, demographic, and spatial factors contribute to the formation of racial and economic inequalities. His current research is funded by a grant from the Spencer Foundation and explores the relationship between residential and school segregation in gentrifying neighborhoods across California.

Dr. Mordechay’s scholarship has been published in journals such as Educational Policy, The American Journal of Education, Urban Education, and Teachers College Record. His work has been featured and cited in the New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR among others. In addition to his scholarly work, Mordechay has served as an expert consultant for the U.S. Department of Education, and other organizations.

Mordechay has been a Visiting Fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford University, and a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the UCLA Civil Rights Project, where he remains an affiliated researcher. He received his PhD in Education Policy from UCLA.

Education

• PhD, University of California, Los Angeles

Selected Works

• Mordechay, K., Pabello, D.M, & Ayscue, J. B. (2023). Gentrification and Schools: Challenges, Opportunities, and Policy Options. Los Angeles, CA: The Civil Rights Project at UCLA.

• Mordechay, K. & Terbeck, F. (2023). Moving Out and Apart: Race, Poverty, and the Suburbanization of Public-School Segregation. American Journal of Education. Doi: 10.1086/723065

• Mordechay, K., Terbeck, F. J. (2023). Moving Toward Integration or Segregation? Racial Change in Suburban Public Schools. Educational Policy. Doi: 08959048231178021

• Mordechay, K. & Ayscue, J. (2022). Diversifying Neighborhoods, Diversifying Schools? The Relationship Between Neighborhood Racial Change and School Segregation in New York City. Education and Urban Society. Doi: 10.1177/00131245221110555

• Ayscue, J., Beam, L. & Mordechay, K. (2022). “An Opportunity to Grow Our Collective Consciousness”: Navigating Racial Tension in a Gentrifying Elementary School." Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership. Doi: 10.1177/1555458921138606

• Mordechay, K. (2021). A Double Edge Sword: Tensions of Integration amidst a Diversifying Public School. Leadership and Policy in Schools. Doi: 10.1080/15700763.2021.1879165

• Mordechay, K. (March, 2021). Gentrification, Demographic Change, and the Challenges of Integration. Washington, DC: Poverty and Race Research Action Council.

• Mordechay, K. (2020). Race, Space, and America’s Subprime Housing Boom. Urban Geography. Doi: 10.1080/02723638.2020.1757860

• Mordechay, K. & Ayscue, J. (2020). Does Neighborhood Gentrification Create School Desegregation? Teachers College Record., 122 (5), pp. 

• Mordechay, K. (2020). Inland Boom and Bust: Race, Place, and the Lasting Consequences of the Southern California Housing Boom. Berkeley, CA: Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley.

• Mordechay, K., & Ayscue, J. B. (2019). School Integration in Gentrifying Neighborhoods: Evidence from New York City. Los Angeles, CA: The Civil Rights Project at UCLA.

• Mordechay, K., Gándara, P., & Orfield, G. (April 2019). Embracing the Effects of Demographic Change. Educational Leadership, 76 (7), 34-40.

• Mordechay, K. & Alfaro, C. (2019). The Binational Context of the Students We Share: What Do Educators on Both Sides of the Border Need to Know? Kappa Delta Pi Record, 55 (1), 30-35. 

• Mordechay, K. (2018) More than just class: school mobility among Black children in the Great Recession. Urban Education. Doi: 10.177/0042085918789740

• Mordechay, K., & Ayscue, J. (2018). Policies needed to build inclusive cities and schools. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 26 (98) 1-14.

• Mordechay, K. & Orfield, G. (2017). Demographic Transformation in a Policy Vacuum: The Changing Face of U.S. Metropolitan Society and Challenges for Public Schools. The Educational Forum, 81 (2), 193-203.

• Mordechay, K. (2017). The Effects of the Great Recession on the School Mobility of Youth. Education and Urban Society. 50 (7), 595-616.

• Gándara, P. & Mordechay, K. (2017). Demographic Change and the New (and not so new) Challenges for Latino Education. The Educational Forum, 81(2), 148-159.

• Mordechay, K. (2017). High School Graduation Rates in The Great Recession: Evidence from a Large School District. The Urban Review. 49(1), 47-7.