Three Essays on Education Policy, Politics, and Non-academic Outcomes
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Jung, Jilli
- Graduate Program:
- Educational Theory and Policy
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- August 16, 2024
- Committee Members:
- Kelly Rosinger, Outside Field Member
John Moran, Outside Unit Member
Maithreyi Gopalan, Major Field Member
Soo-yong Byun, Co-Chair & Dissertation Advisor
David Baker, Co-Chair & Minor Member
Adrienne Dixson, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Education Policy
Politics
Non-academic Outcomes
Quasi-experimental Design
School Board Members
Exclusionary Discipline
Civic Education
Civics Test Policy
Voter Turnout
Later School Start Time Policy
Sleep
Health
South Korea - Abstract:
- Improving students’ academic achievement is just one facet of multifaceted goal or function of education. Education plays a pivotal role in shaping various aspects of individual, including criminal behavior, citizenship, and health (Labaree, 1997; Lochner, 2011). First, education, one of the most effective forms of crime prevention, deters individuals from engaging in criminal activities by providing alternative ways (Lochner, 2004, 2011). Second, education equips young people with the competence and responsibility needed for civic engagement, sustaining a demographic society (Labaree, 1997). Thirs, education promotes cognitive, physical, emotional, and social development necessary to long-term healthy lives via multiple channels, including changing health behaviors (Baker et al., 2011; Cutler & Lleras-Muney, 2008, 2010; Zajacova & Lawrence, 2018). While education may not consistently achieve these goals, a substantial body empirical studies highlight its success in reducing criminal behavior, fostering engaged citizens, and enhancing public health (e.g., Campbell et al., 2014; Cutler & Lleras-Muney, 2008; Dee, 2004). Recognizing the significance of non-academic outcomes and the profound influence of education on them, a growing number of educational policies now target these dimensions. For example, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the federal education law governing US K-12 public education policy, mandates states to incorporate at least one non-academic measure in their school accountability system. To provide rigorous examination of whether and how education policies impact non-academic outcomes, I explore the effects of education policies and an education system around them on students’ discipline, citizenship, and health outcomes, leveraging quasi-experimental designs. Paper 1. The Role of Minority School Board Members in Shaping Exclusionary Discipline Outcomes Although minority representation on school boards could play a crucial role in reducing exclusionary discipline practices and racial disparities, it has not gathered much attention from scholars. Using a longitudinal dataset that connects school board election information with district-level exclusionary discipline data in California, I examine the role of minority board members in the use of exclusionary discipline. Findings show the election of a minority board member is related to a decrease in suspension rates and an increase in expulsion rates over time, highlighting the complexity of discipline practices in response to changes in school board demographics. While the reduction in suspensions aligns with the idea that minority representatives advocate for less punitive measures, the increase in expulsions suggests that expulsions might replace suspensions as a disciplinary measure. Paper 2. The Stubborn Unresponsiveness of Youth Voter Turnout to Civic Education: Quasi-experimental Evidence from State-Mandated Civics Tests Youth voter turnout remains stubbornly low and unresponsive to civic education. Rigorous evaluations of the effects of adopting civics tests for high school graduation by some states on youth voter turnout remain limited. I estimate the impact of a recent, state-mandated civics test policy—the Civics Education Initiative (CEI)—on youth voter turnout by exploiting spatial and temporal variation in the adoption of CEI across states. Using nationally-representative data from the 1996–2020 Current Population Survey and a difference-in-differences analysis, I find that CEI does not significantly affect youth voter turnout. The null results, largely insensitive to a variety of alternative specifications and robustness checks, provide evidence regarding the lack of efficacy of civics test policies when it comes to youth voter participation. Paper 3. The Effects of Later School Start Times on Sleep across School Levels: A Quasi-Experimental Evidence from South Korea This study examines the heterogeneous impact of later school start times on students’ sleep across school levels by leveraging a quasi-experiment in which school start times were delayed in some regions in South Korea. I apply a difference-in-differences design to longitudinal data on nationally representative cohorts of elementary, middle, and high school students from 2010 to 2015. The findings reveal that while the later start time policy had no significant effect on elementary students’ sleep duration, middle and high school students experienced increased sleep duration, with middle schoolers showing a sustained benefit over time. The fade-out in sleep duration benefits among high school students suggests that increased academic demands may prevent them from fully adjusting their sleep schedules to later start times. The study highlights the complexity of implementing a later start time policy, particularly the interplay between the policy and academic demands.