The Long Shadow of Suspensions: Evidence From the NLSY97 (Poster 45)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Saturday 9:50 a.m.
  In Poster Session: Division L Section 8 Social Policy and Education: Poster Session

Abstract

This study examines long-term educational and economic outcomes associated with suspension for girls, using data from the NLSY97. Building on the idea of “school to confinement pathways” the study explores the ways in which suspension may limit girls’ and women’s choices and agency. Using a multi-racial sample, the study finds suspension significantly predicted decreased levels of education, income, and homeownership into a woman’s early thirties. Complex effects by race indicated largest individual impacts on some outcomes for white women, while Black women face the largest overall impact because of high suspension rates. Thus, suspension is profoundly linked to socioeconomic status and economic mobility over decades, influencing life course trajectories through school, into the labor force, and into adulthood.

Author

• Joanna Taylor, Brandeis University