Requiring Nonglobal Citizens: Untangling Requirements for High School Graduation and University Admissions

• In Event: 45.092 - MTCC Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: 45.092-6 - Teacher Professionalism, Sense-Making, and Classroom Instruction

Abstract

Focused on state-level priorities regarding global citizenship education (GCE), this study examines systemic misalignments in language and social studies requirements students must meet to graduate from public high schools and be admissions-eligible at flagship universities. Data from 46 states and Washington, DC show (a) troublesome gaps between sectors, mostly with very large effect sizes (Cohen’s d > 1.50), and (b) cross-sectoral deprioritization of GCE. Both concerns leave students—specifically those grouped into categories with histories of marginalization in U.S. education systems—ill-positioned for university entry and/or life beyond P-16 education. Theoretically grounded in new structuralism and categorical inequality, we examine shared and unique disadvantages that these systemic policy distortions produce among students marginalized due to various demographic factors.

Authors

• Michael Thier, International Baccalaureate

• Lorna Porter, University of Oregon