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Race, ethnicity, and education
Racial Status Threat and Anti-DEI Efforts in Local School Districts
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceThis study draws on political science theory to analyze how perceived status threats to White social dominance influence local educational politics. We examine the relationship between racial status threat (RST) and the rise of anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideas (contentious… more →
Making Civics Salient: Local Political Knowledge for Democratic Participation
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceCivic education can provide students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to become informed and engaged citizens. However, empirical research reveals that civics curricula have achieved limited or inconsistent success in meeting these democratic imperatives for young people in a… more →
Discipline Beyond Suspensions: Racial/Ethnic Disparities Across the Spectrum of Disciplinary Actions
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceLittle research examines whether the alternatives to suspension reduce racial/ethnic discipline disparities. Using unusually rich administrative data from a large district in the South, we investigate how schools use a range of disciplinary actions and the racial/ethnic gaps in their use. School… more →
Resegregating the Academy: How Anti-DEI Politics Dismantle Faculty Racial Equity Infrastructure
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceSince 2021, state legislatures and then the federal government have moved to dismantle programs and offices built over seventy-five years to reduce barriers for racially marginalized people in American higher education—losses largely examined in scholarship and media piecemeal, one policy or… more →
Institutional Resources or Changing Compositions? Unpacking Neighborhood Effects on Education
Topics: Families and CommunitiesChildren in neighborhoods marked by concentrated poverty and racial isolation face persistent educational barriers, yet the mechanisms underlying neighborhood effects remain poorly understood. This study employs a multi-method analysis of the Near North Side Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI… more →
Boosting Dual Enrollment Participation by Simplifying Access for High School Students
Despite the promise of dual enrollment to expand college access, racial disparities in participation persist, and limited research examines policies designed to reduce access barriers. Using statewide student-level data from 2013–14 to 2021–22 and difference-in-differences approaches, I estimate… more →
Quantifying the Double Advantage: A Multilevel Bayesian Analysis of Same-Race (Black) Teacher Matching on Literacy and Promotion
A growing body of research has highlighted the positive impact of Black teachers on the academic outcomes of Black students. This experimental study contributes to that literature by examining the relationship between teacher–student race matching and the likelihood of grade retention for third-… more →
Hmong but not Asian, Sāmoan but not Pacific Islander: Tracing the ECLS-K Racial Data (Mis)Classification Journey
Topics: MethodsRace is a socially and politically charged concept that remains contested in the United States. We examine racial data (mis)classification in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies (ECLS-K) dataset. Centering the racial data journey of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA… more →
Unequal and Persistent Effects of Student Loan Policy: Evidence from Parent PLUS Reforms
Federal student loan policy is designed as a uniform intervention, yet institutions differ in their reliance on specific sources of financing. We study how these differences shape the transmission of policy shocks using two reforms to the Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (Parent PLUS)… more →
The Impact of the 2023 Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard Decision on Undergraduate Demographics
The 2023 Supreme Court decision Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College (SFFA) effectively ended the explicit consideration of race in college admissions. This paper examines the impact of SFFA on the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic composition of undergraduate… more →
Student and Faculty Same-Race Matching at Research Universities
Racial disparities in college persistence and completion remain substantial, yet relatively little evidence exists on how student–faculty interactions contribute to these gaps in research universities. This study examines the prevalence and consequences of student–faculty same-race matching… more →
Understanding the Construction of Compliance with Anti-"DEI" Legislation
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceDespite documented harms of anti-“DEI” laws, little is known about the mechanisms that shape implementation to give these laws expanded and suppressive meaning. Guided by legal mobilization theory and repressive legalism, we examine how institutional actors implement legislation restricting… more →
Democratizing School Reform: Race, Participation, and Redistribution in Education
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceThis paper examines a school-based participatory budgeting initiative as a form of race-conscious democratic design. Drawing on a multi-year study of Participatory Redistribution (PR) in middle schools, I analyze whether embedding deliberative structures into schools can empower racially… more →
Towards a Developmental Model of Democratic Family Rights Policy Regimes: Tracing Federal Literacy Policy, 1968-1990
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: Culturally responsive schooling, Race, ethnicity, and education, Reading and literacy educationBy excavating submerged dynamics underlying literacy accountability policy, this historical case study conceptualizes its institutional logic and political drivers. Bridging and extending theorization in American political development and racial political behavior, I contribute an original… more →
A Sandbox for Hard Choices: Using Simulation to Explore School Closure Scenarios and Their Consequences
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceSchool closures are often justified through seemingly neutral criteria such as enrollment or performance, but these metrics can unintentionally deepen educational disparities. This study uses a large urban district’s administrative data to simulate 5,040 closure scenarios, systematically varying… more →
The legacy of Plyler v. Doe: A critical window of inclusion
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceThis study examines whether the 1982 Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court decision increased school participation among Latino K–12 students likely to be undocumented in Texas. The analysis asks whether removing tuition and enrollment barriers changed participation patterns relative to comparable states… more →
The Language of Closure: Examining Racial Differences in How A Community Discusses School Closure Metrics
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceSchool closures in urban districts disproportionately affect marginalized communities, yet community input often goes unanalyzed or is reduced to simple frequency counts. This study applies BERTopic, a neural topic modeling approach, to analyze 4,159 suggestions from 2,006 community members… more →
Not Too Young to Notice: The Early Emergence of Racial Disparities in Elementary Students’ School Climate Perceptions
Topics: Student Well-BeingScholarship on school climate often fails to explore the perspectives of elementary-school students. To fill this gap, we use survey-data from Georgia to examine racial disparities in elementary-school students’ school climate perceptions, how they vary over time, and the factors that associate… more →
Examining the Role of Policy Instruments in Supporting Public HBCUs’ College Affordability
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceThis study uses a multiple-case qualitative research design to examine the fiscal policy instruments that members of State Legislative Black Caucuses (SLBC) use to strengthen college affordability and broaden access for undergraduate low-income Black students attending public HBCUs. Guided by… more →
Residential Segregation and Unequal Access to Local Public Services in India: Evidence from 1.5m Neighborhoods
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceWe study residential segregation and access to public services across 1.5 million urban and rural neighborhoods in India. Muslim and Scheduled Caste segregation in India is high by global standards, and only slightly lower than Black-White segregation in the U.S. Within cities, public facilities… more →