Organizing Authority Relations for Success: Communal, Authoritative, Authoritarian, Moral, and Criminalization Approaches

• In Event: 2169 - School Context

Abstract

This paper examines the academic consequences of how schools organize discipline and authority relations. Five organizational models of authority relations are identified and are used to predict student gains from 10th to 12th grade in math achievement and school engagement. Student achievement and engagement gains are found to be higher in schools using the communal, authoritative, and moral authority approaches, and lower in schools using the authoritarian approach. However, the benefits and costs of being in schools using these authority relations models differ for students on the basis of race, gender, and socioeconomic status. The benefits of being in schools organized using the communal and authoritative approaches are strongest for white, female, and low socioeconomic status students; male students are hurt by the authoritarian model while female students benefit from this approach; and the criminalization approach is detrimental for Black and Hispanic students, but actually beneficial for white students.

Author

• Sarah K. Bruch, University of Iowa