Local labor market opportunities and the educational outcomes of high school students in the United States

This dissertation examines the role that social context plays in educational outcomes. Specifically, it analyzes the relationship between the opportunities available in the local labor markets and the school outcomes of students who live in those localities. Building on the economic and sociological research that includes the local neighborhood effects on individual outcomes, I develop a model to test the hypothesis that lower local labor market opportunities are related to lower academic outcomes by students in local schools. This positive relationship between local labor market opportunities and academic outcomes would reflect a "discouragement response" by the students. Three indices were created to measure student academic standing, withdrawal, and aspirations. Local labor market opportunities were measured by a students' local unemployment rates, as well as their own race and gender group unemployment rates and occupational segregation as compared to white males. Regression models were run that accounted for the complex sample design and clustering of the data and controlled for individual, school, and regional factors that past research has shown to explain educational outcomes. The results of my research indicated no significant relationship between the local labor market opportunity measures and the indices of educational outcomes when controlling for other factors.