Date of Award

Spring 2016

Document Type

Thesis

Terms of Use

© 2016 Kathy Sun. All rights reserved. This work is freely available courtesy of the author. It may only be used for non-commercial, educational, and research purposes. For all other uses, including reproduction and distribution, please contact the copyright holder.

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Educational Studies Department, Economics Department

First Advisor

Edwin Mayorga

Second Advisor

Mark Kuperberg

Abstract

This thesis looks at the impact of community building on student achievement. The theoretical framework stems from Akerlof and Kranton's paper on how student identity impacts schooling outcomes. By combining economic and sociological theories, they argue that community building increases student identification with school and student achievement. Through a literature review, I categorize the ways that schools build community. I then test Akerlof and Kranton's theory that community building increases student identification and achievement through a review of the literature and my own quantitative analysis. I ultimately find that while community building increases student identification, it does not increase achievement.

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