| dc.description.abstract | In this dissertation I use modern microeconomic methods to examine the impact of K-12 education policy interventions on student outcomes. In the first chapter I explore how increased funding for school policing and sentiment surrounding school policing can have downstream effects on student discipline, and how these effects vary by student and school characteristics. I leverage variation in school police presence induced by participation in a federal grant program in a difference-in-differences framework to show that, on average, suspension rates for Hispanic students increase significantly following grant receipt. Using natural language processing tools, I investigate how grant application content can influence these heterogeneous effects, and find that applications from school districts with a greater share of minority students are more likely to include negative language, and that this trickles down to worse outcomes for all students in those districts. The second chapter examines the impact of a grade retention policy on student outcomes in Tennessee, where legislation passed in 2011 requiring third-grade students to demonstrate reading proficiency before being promoted to fourth grade. We use a difference-in-differences approach to show that the policy had small but lasting positive effects on reading achievement and disciplinary outcomes of students targeted by the law, and do not find that this policy deters students from attending school. We concur that due to low overall retention rates and the nature of Tennessee’s policy, which allowed students to participate in an alternative intervention in lieu of being retained, these positive results are likely driven by an increase in research-based interventions provided to students. The third chapter examines the impact of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which aimed to improve the nutritional quality of school lunches nationwide, on student outcomes. Using a generalized difference-in-differences approach, I find that discipline rates in schools with greater exposure to shifts in school meal content decreased, and that these meal changes did not deter students from attending school. | |
