Disruptive Interactions: Long-run Peer Effects of Disciplinary Schools

Abstract

We study the effects of disruptive peers within disciplinary schools. When regular instructional schools send disruptive students away to disciplinary schools, removed students are exposed to highly disruptive peers. Using rich administrative data on Texas high school students, we leverage within school-year variation in peer composition at disciplinary schools to estimate the effects. We show that for students placed in disciplinary schools, exposure to more disruptive peer groups increase their subsequent removals and reduce educational attainment, employment, and earnings. Our results draw attention to an unintended consequence of student removal and highlight how brief exposure to disruptive peers can affect students' long-run trajectories.

Keywords: Disruptive Peer Effects, School Discipline, Education, Labor

JEL Classification: I2, I24, J01