How does the racial composition of high schools affect political participation among students of color?
By: Marayna Martinez
Abstract:
Long before Americans become eligible voters, they have key experiences that influence their propensity to engage in politics. Experiences within K-12 public schools may convey messages to students about their roles as citizens while also conferring essential resources necessary for political participation. This paper seeks to understand how school racial compositions affected nonwhite students long-term, in this case, their levels of political participation. I hypothesize that while nonwhite students in predominantly white schools receive better resources, they are also likely to have worse social experiences compared to comparable students in majority-minority schools. Using the 1988 National Education Longitudinal Study and the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, I find that attending a predominantly white high school is associated with more negative school experiences and higher resources for students of color in 1988, but not 2002. Resources and experiences are countervailing mechanisms that pull political participation in opposite directions but change over time. Overall, during peak school integration, attending a predominantly white high school is associated with lower levels of political participation for students of color.
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