Does learning loss mediate the elevated dropout rates of students exposed to higher level of gun-violence?

• In Event: 1560 - At the Intersection of Education and the Criminal Justice System

Abstract

This work investigates whether cumulative learning loss leads to cognitive performance constraints that mediate the elevated dropout rates of black and Hispanic youth who were exposed to elevated levels of gun-violence. Results suggest that cognitive performance constraints from learning loss are not closely tied to higher dropout rates for black and Hispanic youth. After a policy change that raised the cognitive requirements for high school completion, the dropout rates of Black and Hispanic students in areas with higher levels of gun-violence showed no differential short-term response to the policy relative to the same groups in low gun-violence exposure areas. The absence of a differential response among black and Hispanic students in high crime areas suggests that there was not a significant mass of students near the previous cognitive threshold for high school graduation. Thus, cognitive constraints from learning loss are likely not a limiting factor mediating the elevated black and Hispanic dropout rates in high gun-violence exposure areas.

Author

• Ravaris LaDale Moore, Loyola Marymount University