Victoria Elyse Sosina
Published: 2020
Total Pages:
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Though optimistically touted as "the great equalizer, " the U.S. education system has historically been plagued by inequality along the axes of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Guided by theoretical traditions from sociology and the applied perspective of education policy, this dissertation builds on prior work by asking: How does racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic context matter for educational inequality? With a particular focus on racial/ethnic segregation and socioeconomic inequality, this work explores inter-group disparities in educational inputs and experiences that evidence suggest matter for student wellbeing, including school discipline and finance. Together, these studies provide descriptive evidence of the social processes and contexts that structure disparities in educational experiences. This kind of descriptive work, informed by theory as well as the applied concerns of education researchers, represents a key addition to scholarship focused on how to define, understand, and remedy inequality in K-12 education.