Angela Kang
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (i.e., LGBT) youth are at risk for lower educational attainment than their heterosexual and cisgender peers. Prior research indicates that inclusive anti-discrimination policies and gender sexual alliances can improve school outcomes for LGBT and all youth, yet few studies have examined these strategies with respect to long term educational attainment such as graduation rate, college readiness, and higher education enrollment. This study examined the influence of inclusive enumerated anti-discrimination policies and gender sexuality alliances (GSAs) on long-term educational attainment indicators in the 20 largest public school districts of Texas. Across the top 20 school districts, 42.03% of schools had GSAs and 56.04% had inclusive policies. Results found that students in schools with GSAs were significantly more likely to be deemed college-ready or college, career, or military-ready by the Texas Education Agency. Neither enumerated policies nor GSAs were significantly associated with overall four-year graduation rate, dropout rates, and enrollment in Texas higher education in the current study. Results suggest that GSAs may be a successful proximate strategy in supporting inclusive campus culture that can translate to long-term positive outcomes. District-level inclusive policies may not be enough to influence student educational outcomes, but further research is necessary to understand the impacts of policy and other protective strategies.
Comments
Really great work! We are very proud of you! – Arturo De Lozanne
This is great research. Thank you for sharing about the importance of GSAs! – Terrian Spurs
Thank you for reading! – Angela Kang
Thanks for this important work! – Meg Bishop
Thank you!! – Angela Kang
This is great! What other educational attainment indicators might you be interested in looking at if you were to continue this work? – Rob Reichle
Also, thank you for providing an audio description — that was extremely helpful! – Rob Reichle
I am glad you found the audio helpful! For educational attainment indicators, if there was a way to track students over time to examine attainment longitudinally through a college graduation variable, I believe that would be critical to understanding long-term well-being. College enrollment rates, as I studied, do not necessarily mean students will stay in college! – Angela Kang