Alexandra Cooperstock

Alexandra Cooperstock is an award winning sociologist who explores how ethnoracial and social class inequalities are produced and perpetuated in neighborhoods and schools, and how policy contexts influence the neighborhood-school nexus and create stratified opportunity structures. This work contributes to research on inequality and stratification, the sociology of education, community and urban sociology, public policy, and the field of social and spatial demography. Her research has been funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation, the American Educational Research Association, and the National Science Foundation. She has been published in general interest, special interest, and interdisciplinary journals including Social Forces, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Frontiers in Education, City & Community, as well as the Oxford Handbook of Family Policy.

Alexandra was formerly a K-12 teacher. She worked in both public and charter schools and was awarded Teach for America's Sue Lehmann Excellence in Teacher Leadership Award. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology with a minor in Demography from Cornell University, and a B.A. in Sociology and Women's Studies from the University of Michigan where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

 

PUBLICATIONS:

Tach, Laura, Emily Parker, Alexandra Cooperstock, and Samuel Dodini. 2025. “U.S. Federal Place-Based Policy and the Geography of Inequality, 1990-2019.” Social Forces soaf098.

Alvarado, Steven Elías and Alexandra Cooperstock. 2024. “The Echo of Neighborhood Disadvantage: Multigenerational Contextual Hardship and Adult Income for Whites, Blacks, and Latinos.” City & Community 23(1):47-80.

v  American Sociological Association featured article and Sage Sociology podcast

Cooperstock, Alexandra. 2023. “The Demographics of School District Secession.” Social Forces 101(4):1976-2012.

v  David Lee Stevenson Paper Award, Education Section, American Sociological Association

v  Population Section Paper Award, American Sociological Association

v  Maureen T. Hallinan Paper Award, American Educational Research Association

v  Brooks School of Public Policy Paper Award, Cornell University

v  Robin M. Williams Jr. Paper Award, Department of Sociology, Cornell University

v  Abridged version prepared for the School Diversity Notebook

Sassler, Sharon and Alexandra Cooperstock. 2023. “The Various Roles of Cohabitation in the United States.” Chapter 18, pages 388-418 in The Oxford Handbook of Family Policy Over the Life Course, edited by Mary Daly, Birgit Pfau-Effinger, Neil Gilbert, and Douglas Besharov. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 

McCauley, Erin and Alexandra Cooperstock. 2022. “Differential Self-Reported COVID-19 Impacts Among U.S. Secondary Teachers by Race/Ethnicity.” Frontiers in Education 7:931234.

Alvarado, Steven Elías and Alexandra Cooperstock. 2021. “Context in Continuity: The Enduring Legacy of Neighborhood Disadvantage Across Generations.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 74:100620. 

Rauscher, Emily and Alexandra Cooperstock. Forthcoming. “Spending in Rural and Non-Rural Districts.” in The Rural Blind Spot: Bridging the Knowledge Gap in Education Finance & Policy, edited by Thomas Downes and Kieran Killeen. Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing.