ERIC Number: ED615465
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Dec
Pages: 5
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-
EISSN: N/A
From Dreamer to DACAmented: Understanding the Educational Choices of Undocumented Immigrants in Texas. Policy Brief
Monarrez, Tomas
Texas Education Research Center
As of 2015, eighteen states in the nation had enacted tuition equity laws granting resident tuition rates to qualifying undocumented students. The state of Texas was the pioneer of this movement, approving House Bill 1403 in July of 2001. The initiative came to be known as the 'Texas Dream Act' (TDA). It granted a large reduction in the cost of college attendance for undocumented students, moving them from out-of-state to in-state status in terms of tuition and fees. The complex institutional environment faced by the affected population, however, hinders the ability to predict the effect of this reform on education attainment on purely theoretical grounds. Thus, the effect of tuition equity reforms on the postsecondary educational attainment of undocumented immigrant students is theoretically ambiguous, and better studied empirically. This paper contributes to this endeavor by estimating the effect of the TDA on the post-secondary educational attainment of undocumented public high school students. To do this, the author exploits administrative data from Texas public education agencies -- the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Texas Higher Education Coordination Board (THECB) -- via the Texas Education Research Center at UT Austin. The author estimates the effect of the reform using a generalized differences-in-differences research design, in which non-immigrant Hispanic high schoolers serve as a comparison group for the group affected by the reform.
Descriptors: Undocumented Immigrants, College Choice, Educational Attainment, Disadvantaged Youth, High School Graduates, Predictor Variables
Texas Education Research Center. University of Texas at Austin, Pickle Research Campus, 10100 Burnet Road, Bldg #137 TCB, Rm 1.143A, L4500, Austin, TX 78758; Tel: 512-471-4528; Web site: https://texaserc.utexas.edu/
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Texas Education Research Center
Identifiers - Location: Texas
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA); Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A