Three Essays on Educational Policy and Equity

Abstract

The systematic oppression of Black men and women throughout U.S. history has resulted in persistent unequal access to opportunity. U.S. leaders have long attempted to improve the outcomes of Black Americans through public policy. With nearly all key long-term measures—employment, wealth, incarceration, health—correlating with educational attainment, policymakers have often focused on changing public schools in particular. But decades of educational reform have not meaningfully reduced racial differences in standardized test performance or college going, let alone in adulthood outcomes. I leverage rigorous quantitative methods in my research to contribute to and build on these existing efforts to address racial inequalities through educational policy. In the first strand of my work, I explore how changing the in-school experiences of White youth can expand opportunity for Black Americans. I specifically identify how schools impact White students’ racial attitudes, prosocial behaviors, and preferences for equity. In the second strand, I investigate how these particular outcomes contribute to Black-White disparities in schools and in adulthood more broadly. In the third and final strand of my research, I partner with educational agencies and evaluate the effects of their programs and policies on Black and Brown students’ outcomes. I believe it is imperative to support partners’ ongoing efforts that aim to expand the opportunities of their most marginalized youth. Each of the papers of my three-paper dissertation that follows falls into at least one of these strands of research.