Project Activities
The researchers will construct measures of students' exposure to racially diverse peers throughout K–12. They will link these measures of exposure to diverse peers with early adult outcomes such as postsecondary attendance and attainment, labor market outcomes at ages 25 and 30, voting behavior, and exposure to the criminal justice system. Furthermore, the researchers will examine how relationships between exposure to diverse peers and adult outcomes vary by student race or ethnicity, the policy mechanisms that generated more (or less) exposure to racially diverse peers, and the degree of racial inequality within schools and classrooms.
Structured Abstract
Setting
This study will take place in the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) in North Carolina.
Sample
The sample include all students who were enrolled in a WCPSS high school between the 2000-01 and 2009-10 school years. WCPSS is a county-wide district encompassing both geographic diversity and racial and ethnic diversity among student population.
The main factors include exposure to racially diverse peers (measured across students' full period of enrollment in K–12, as well as at three time points—elementary, middle, and high school). The researchers will operationalize racially diversity for peers by create indices such as the proportion of same-race schoolmates and classmates.
Research design and methods
The researchers will use a quantitative approach that includes both descriptive and regression analysis of administrative data of K–12 students at WCPSS. For the descriptive work, they will explore the associations between exposure to peer racial diversity in K–12 settings and early adult educational, economic, civic, and social outcomes to describe the average relationships between each outcome and students' exposure to racially diverse peers. The regression analyses will examine the associations between exposure to racially diverse peers in K–12 schools and early adult outcomes, and whether those associations vary by students' racial/ethnic identity, the policy mechanism used to induce change in school diversity, and levels of within-school racial inequality.
Control condition
Because there is no treatment condition, there is no corresponding control condition. Instead, the study compares similarly situated students with more or less exposure to racially diverse K–12 school environments.
Key measures
They key variables include measures of exposure to racially diverse peers and outcomes of postsecondary education (e.g., enrollment, attainment), labor market (e.g., employment status, earnings), voting (e.g., voter registration status, voting behavior) and criminal justice (e.g., criminal conviction). The key moderator measures include student racial/ethnic identity, policy mechanism, and within-school racial inequality.
Data analytic strategy
The research team will first construct a measure of racial diversity and calculate the averages of racial diversity by schools and classrooms. They will also use several regression analyses, including models with fixed effects for the neighborhoods where students reside. The regression analysis results will show to what extent racial diversity is related to student outcomes.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Products and publications
Products: The research team will disseminate study results to three audiences: stakeholders in the Wake County Public School System and North Carolina, scholarly audiences, and other national and local education policy stakeholders. To accomplish this goal, they will produce a variety of research products, including workshops and briefings, academic publications and conference presentations, policy briefs, and blog posts.
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Supplemental information
Co-Principal Investigators: Domina, Thurston; Carter III, James; Estrera, Elc; Perera, Rachel; Lenard, Matthew
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
