Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF BETWEEN-SCHOOL SEGREGATION: EVIDENCE FROM THE U.S. AND CHILE(2022) Lagos Marin, Francisco; Blazar, David; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Between-school segregation poses significant challenges for students’ short- and long-term success as well as for societal cohesion. Diversifying schools with regard to students’ background characteristics is theorized by scholars from multiple disciplinary perspectives as an important social and policy endeavor. However, it can be an uphill battle due to several barriers, including residential segregation, inequitable distribution of school options, social closure dynamics, information asymmetries, and others. In my dissertation, I conduct applied quantitative analyses that speak to the potential benefits of and policy avenues toward more diverse school contexts. While the two quantitative chapters use different data sources and explore different questions, (i) they align broadly under the umbrella of the literature on between-school segregation and school diversity; (ii) they both are interdisciplinary analyses, bringing together knowledge from sociology and economics; and (iii) they both employ causal frameworks, exploiting exogenous variation derived from cross-sectional policy shocks and longitudinal demographic changes. To begin the dissertation, in Chapter 1, I review the theoretical and empirical literature on school-based segregation and diversity, arguing that key components of the theory have not yet been fully tested empirically. Chapter 2 investigates the effects of school-based segregation and—on the flipside—school-based student diversity on short-term academic outcomes. I document changes in school racial and ethnic composition over time using statewide data from Maryland. Then, I assess the causal effects of these changes on short-term test scores and suspensions, using a value-added and a student-school fixed-effects approach. I find that, while most students benefit from being enrolled with a larger proportion of students of color, the association is non-linear and heterogenous by the student’s race-ethnicity. The findings suggest that policy discussions around school diversity need to consider how potential shifts in peer composition may dissimilarly impact different students and institutional dynamics in more/less diverse schools at baseline. Chapter 3 examines the effects of a policy in Chile that prohibits selective admissions and introduces a centralized admissions lottery as a possible policy solution to between-school segregation in school choice contexts. Relying on publicly available administrative data, I exploit rollouts across regions and municipalities for identification in a difference-in-differences and event study framework. I find that prohibiting selective admissions reduces between-school socioeconomic segregation, mitigating the stratifying effects of school choice. The findings suggest that specific regulations are central for school choice systems to achieve their theorized goal of expanding schooling alternatives by breaking the link between neighborhood and segregative district boundaries. By drawing upon the findings of both papers, the dissertation highlights the normative and empirical complexities that the analysis of school segregation and diversity entails for policy and research aimed at attaining a more equitable distribution of educational opportunities.Item There goes the neighborhood school: Towards an understanding of gentrification's effects on public schools(2021) Butler, Alisha; Galino, Claudia; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The growing presence of middle-class families in urban neighborhoods and schools has catalyzed interdisciplinary investigations designed to investigate the transformative promises and challenges of gentrification for public education. This three-article dissertation expands our understanding of school gentrification through complementary, qualitative investigations designed to understand the meanings and implications of demographic and cultural changes for urban schools. Study 1, “Responding to Gentrification: Navigating School-Family Partnerships Amid Demographic Change,” draws on data collected through a multisite case study of three elementary schools in Washington, DC to investigate how school staff respond to gentrification. This study foregrounds the perspectives of 21 school staff members (i.e., teachers, administrators, support staff, and external partners) and finds that staff members recognized the potential of gentrification to alter their school’s existing cultures and implemented several strategies to promote inclusive school-family partnerships. This study’s findings suggest that when school staff are intentional about equity, they can minimize the marginalization and exclusion of longtime resident parents in gentrifying school communities. Study 2, “School Gentrification and the Ecologies of Parent Engagement,” adds to the growing conversation about middle-class parents’ engagement in gentrifying schools. This study foregrounds the perspectives of 17 middle-class parents and finds that their experiences in and perceptions of gentrification influenced their motivations for and practices to engage in their children’s schools. This study’s findings reveal the potential of collectively-oriented middle-class engagement to improve the experiences of all students and families in gentrifying schools. Study 3, “What’s Best for my Child, What’s Best for the City: Values and Tensions in Parent Gentrifiers’ Middle and High School Selection Processes,” draws on retrospective interviews with a sample of 20 parent gentrifiers to understand how families select secondary schools for their children. Although interviewed parents espoused many civically-oriented values that might suggest an automatic preference for neighborhood schools, just two of the interviewed parents had children enrolled in these schools during the study’s focal year. This study’s findings reveal critical differences between elementary and secondary schooling decisions and reveal the limits of civic values in informing parent gentrifiers’ schooling decisions.