Studies of educational change from three disciplinary perspectives: Sociology, policy, and human development

In the last half decade, America has expanded educational opportunities and experimented with a variety of educational reforms in an effort to reduce educational inequality. The first part of this dissertation examines the effectiveness of two major education policies aim to reduce educational inequality. Chapter 1 examines whether the expansion of education opportunities reduced the effects of class on higher educational attainment. Using the sociological theory of the educational attainment process, I examine whether class effects have changed over time using longitudinal data of students surveyed in the last three decade (i.e., 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s). Chapter 2 examines educational change from a policy perspective. The last decade has shown increasing federal intervention in America’s schools. As states began adopting standards-based reform and calling for accountability during the late 1980s and early 1990s, federal policymakers incorporated standard-based reform into federal law under the 2001 reauthorization of Education Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), now called No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Using abbreviated interrupted time-series analysis and data from the National Education Assessment Program (NAEP), I examine the effect NCLB has on student achievement. The last part of the dissertation examines education change from a human development perspective. Most policy solutions are crafted to eliminate structural barriers to educational attainment. Few consider the role individual agency play in the process. Chapter 3 examines whether environmental risks shock students off their educational trajectory via changes in their college aspirations, school effort, and achievement and ultimately affect their risk of dropping out. Of importance is whether students recover from these shocks and return to their expected educational trajectory. Chapter 1 results show that despite government's great effort in reducing education inequality, expansion of educational opportunities did not decrease class effects in student educational attainment. Chapter 2 findings suggest that the recent national policy of NCLB had few significant effects on increasing student test scores. And finally, Chapter 3 results show that environmental risks do shock student off their educational path, both positively and negatively. However, the rippling effects are not large enough to increase students' risk of dropping out and most quickly recover from these changes, albeit not completely.