This dissertation consists of three empirical studies that uses different sources of data and quantitative methods to explore the potential ripple effects of immigration enforcement actions on K-12 schools. The first study examined the relationship between deportations ordered by U.S. immigration courts and reading and math achievement in elementary grades. The study uses nationally representative data from two cohorts of elementary students, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies: Kindergarten Classes of 1998-99 and 2010-11. Results indicated that Latinx student achievement in math declined in counties with increases in the number of deportations. Findings suggest that these associations were driven by children in urban schools, second-generation children, children in households living under the poverty line, children attending Title I schools, and English learners. Looking across four separate terms of presidential administrations that oversaw immigration policy, results also suggest that declines associated with increases in deportations were not observed in the second term of the Obama administration.

The second study examined the immediate and sustained impacts of immigration arrests on student absenteeism in secondary grades. This study uses weekly logs of student attendance provided by a partnering school district, which serves students in an area of California that experienced significant immigration enforcement activity from 2014-2018. The study employs quasi-experimental methods using data from the partnering school district as well as a peer district located over 100 miles from occurring incidents of immigration arrests. Results indicated that large incidents of immigration arrests corresponded to immediate declines in the attendance rate of students in the district. Moreover, results show that the incidents with the greatest number of arrests resulted in a sustained decline in the district’s attendance rate by 2%, even when accounting for student mobility and demographic changes. These results are for all students in the district. Findings were most pronounced for Latinx students, socioeconomically disadvantaged students, English learners, migrant students, and students with disabilities.

The third study focuses on new teachers entering California schools. Specifically, this study examined to what extent teachers experienced the impacts of immigration enforcement in their schools. These outcomes included whether they witnessed impacts on students, reported increases in their own job dissatisfaction due to immigration enforcement, and/or whether they felt prepared to support students impacted by immigration enforcement. This study also examined what preservice training characteristics corresponded to these three outcomes. Survey data was collected from graduates from the teacher preparation programs in the University of California system. These new teachers were surveyed at the time of graduation and after one year of full-time teaching. Findings from this study suggest that most teachers report experiencing impacts of immigration enforcement on their students and believe immigration enforcement has increased their job dissatisfaction. Results also indicated that teachers who received greater exposure to immigration policy and procedures in their preservice training were more likely to witness students impacts and felt better prepared to support these students. Teachers who reported having more exposure to discussions about engagement with immigrant families also tended to report being better prepared to support students who are impacted by immigration enforcement. Differences based on school and teacher characteristics are discussed.

For decades researchers have observed the relationship between college students’ social integration, and college persistence and other student success outcomes (Cabrera, Castaneda, Nora, & Hengstler, 1992; Tinto, 1993). With social media having become such an important component of college students’ social lives, many new possibilities to engage students through these media have emerged in recent years. Studies show both that colleges are increasingly utilizing these tools (NACAC, 2009), and that students who use them demonstrate higher levels of engagement (Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009), which could ultimately lead to improved student success outcomes. Transfer students are a particularly vulnerable population, having consistently been shown to struggle more with social integration than their peers who enter institutions as freshmen (Bauer & Bauer, 1994; Rhine, Milligan, & Nelson, 2000; Laanan, 2007). They, therefore, might stand to benefit from the engagement opportunities offered by social media, which can be utilized before students ever set foot on campus, thereby easing the initial transition, and positioning students for both short- and long-term success. However, little information exists on the relationship between students’ participation in social media and student success. This study examines that relationship for transfer students admitted to a major public research university. Two sets of analyses look at whether students who participate in the university’s social media community are more likely to matriculate, and whether they exhibit better student success outcomes. The first set of analyses provide some evidence that social media networking significantly influences the matriculation decisions of students who choose to participate, β = .323, p < .001. While the second set of analyses reveal no significant differences for student success outcomes, both graduation rates and GPAs are slightly higher within the treatment group than the control group, a promising result that may indicate further study is warranted.

While education is often talked about as a standalone system, most people experience education as just one part of their broader lives. Schools do not exist in siloes, but serve as a place where people and policy overlap and intersect. The implication of this is that while what happens inside of school buildings is incredibly important, such as curricula, pedagogical choices, or leadership decisions, what happens outside of the school and classroom also matters. This dissertation is a collection of three studies, each investigating an example of an education policy related to, but not directly taking place inside of the classroom.The first study, a co-authored project, examines how school-bus taking habits are related to attendance behaviors for kindergarteners with disabilities. Using ECLS-K, a nationally representative dataset of elementary students, this study finds correlations between certain groups of students with disabilities based on diagnosis type. In particular, students with the most common diagnosis types have better attendance rates when they ride the school-bus. The implication is that outside services such as school transportation, often controlled at the local level, have the potential to impact what happens in classrooms, in this case attendance. The second study is a comparative look at the structure of teacher education programs in California and Denmark. Through interviews with teacher candidates (students enrolled in a teacher education program) and instructors, this study examines how participants experience three focus concepts in their programs: program structure, social responsibility of teaching, and the inclusion of culturally sustaining pedagogies in teacher education curriculum. This study finds that the programs in both locations had highly structured and collaborative programs, but that each differed in the other concepts. Danish participants tended to express a very cohesive view of the social purpose of teaching and schooling, especially as it related to the continued stability of Denmark’s democracy. Californian participants expressed high concern in prioritizing the broader integration of culturally sustaining pedagogies in their programs. This study shows how a higher-level policy (at the state level in California, and the national level in Denmark) such as teacher education influences how schools operate downstream from the policy. The third study traces the development of two frameworks for understanding international cooperation across education systems. Through an examination of the founding documents for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment (commonly referred to as PISA) and the Futures of Education framework more recently offered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), this study compares the goals of both frameworks and what they mean for participating countries. PISA has largely dominated international education discussions for two decades, but with the emergence of Futures in the past few years, there may be an appetite for changing how countries compare their education systems and what they hope to gain from international comparisons in the first place. Combined, these three studies demonstrate the way education policy is interwoven with many systems and aspects outside of the classroom. Understanding the complexity and nuance of these overlapping systems can help policymakers as they navigate how to identify, define and then achieve the desired outcomes for students, families, teachers and school leaders. Recognizing and focusing on the way education systems impact participants beyond the traditional measures of student success is key to creating and sustaining just and equitable systems for all.