| Danielle Fumia
University of Washington - Seattle
The New Postsecondary Institution: Estimating the Effect of Incarceration on Racial and Gender Gaps in Educational Attainment
Reducing racial and gender disparities in education is a consistent topic of conversation in discussions of education research, policy, and reform. The criminal justice system, which has potentially significant impacts on observed racial and gender disparities in education, remains mostly absent from these discussions. While not usually married with educational policy, the significant difference in rates of incarceration for minorities relative to whites and the fact that incarceration often impacts young, school-aged men suggests that it could explain a significant portion of the racial and gender disparities in educational attainment, particularly in high school completion and college enrollment rates. This work will explore how incarceration and incarceration policies contribute to racial and gender disparities in educational attainment. Using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I will estimate the effect of imprisonment on educational attainment and how this effect varies by race and sex. I will use various statistical methods including propensity score matching and instrumental variable analysis to address issues of selection bias and reverse causality inherent in using observational data to estimate this effect. Findings from this research will be used to inform educators, policymakers, and researchers of the extent to which incarceration policies explain racial and gender gaps in educational attainment. In doing so, this work can be used to develop policies and strategies aimed at minimizing the impact of incarceration on racial and gender gaps in educational attainment.
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