Racial Disparities in K-12 Education: Understanding Biases
| dc.contributor.advisor | Kjellstrand, Jean | |
| dc.contributor.author | Clark, Miriam | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-10-04T19:25:41Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-10-04T19:25:41Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022-10-04 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Ample evidence suggests many U.S. institutions operate within a system of racial inequities, yet the existence of these inequities and their implications are regularly debated in public discourse. The term “School-to-Prison Pipeline” (STPP) refers to the trend in which children receive exclusionary discipline at school – funneling them out of public school and into the juvenile and eventual adult criminal justice system. Children of color are especially vulnerable to being placed on the STPP. As such, the STPP is one process which perpetuates and amplifies racial inequalities. Understanding the underlying policies and practices that perpetuate these processes over time is critical to understanding how to best combat systemic racism in these institutions. This study seeks to gain understanding of one aspect that may perpetuate the STPP. Using a longitudinal national dataset of 4,898 children born between 1998 and 2000 in 20 U.S. cities and structural equation modeling, this study examines how the concordance of the race of the student and race of the teacher impacts student academic achievement and student discipline both at the elementary and secondary school levels. Findings suggest students at age 9 who have the same race as their teacher are more likely to have better academic performance and less likely to receive exclusionary discipline than students who have a teacher of a different race. This teacher-student race concordance for students at age 9 also positively impacts their academic achievement and is negatively associated with their exclusionary discipline when they are 15. The model operates with subtle but still significant differences for Black versus White participants and for female versus male participants. Understanding the complex relations between these constructs provides critical information on how teachers’ race and potential racial biases can impact students’ academic trajectories. Identifying factors and processes which perpetuate the STPP among Black students is a first step towards addressing the issue. Such information is key in informing the development of teacher trainings to combat the hidden biases within the educational system. Moreover, this research serves as a steppingstone to future research by raising broader questions related to children’s socialization and the effects of biases. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/27542 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon | |
| dc.rights | All Rights Reserved. | |
| dc.subject | biases | en_US |
| dc.subject | incarceration | en_US |
| dc.subject | race | en_US |
| dc.subject | risk factors | en_US |
| dc.subject | School to Prison Pipeline | en_US |
| dc.subject | teacher biases | en_US |
| dc.title | Racial Disparities in K-12 Education: Understanding Biases | |
| dc.type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Department of Counseling Psychology and Human Services | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Oregon | |
| thesis.degree.level | doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Ph.D. |
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