Academic culture beyond the individual: Group-level norms and college enrollment.

Although many scholars have written about culture in schools and discuss culture as a group-level phenomenon, quantitative studies tend to empirically examine culture at the individual-level. This study presents a group-level conceptualization of academic culture known as cultural heterogeneity-the presence of a diverse array of competing and conflicting cultural models-to examine whether variation in school-level academic orientation predicts college enrollment. We use the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS) to show that whereas academic press (or average school academic culture) is positively related to enrollment, variation in school academic culture is associated with declines in enrollment. These findings hold net of students' own academic behaviors and beliefs, background factors, and school characteristics. Thus, exposure to conflicting models of culture can lead youth to make decisions that do not reflect broader societal goals. This study addresses the misalignment between the conceptual and empirical definitions of culture in education by examining the link between school academic culture measured as a group-level process, which is consistent with how scholars discuss culture, and college enrollment.

Exposure to opposing views on social media can increase political polarization.

There is mounting concern that social media sites contribute to political polarization by creating "echo chambers" that insulate people from opposing views about current events. We surveyed a large sample of Democrats and Republicans who visit Twitter at least three times each week about a range of social policy issues. One week later, we randomly assigned respondents to a treatment condition in which they were offered financial incentives to follow a Twitter bot for 1 month that exposed them to messages from those with opposing political ideologies (e.g., elected officials, opinion leaders, media organizations, and nonprofit groups). Respondents were resurveyed at the end of the month to measure the effect of this treatment, and at regular intervals throughout the study period to monitor treatment compliance. We find that Republicans who followed a liberal Twitter bot became substantially more conservative posttreatment. Democrats exhibited slight increases in liberal attitudes after following a conservative Twitter bot, although these effects are not statistically significant. Notwithstanding important limitations of our study, these findings have significant implications for the interdisciplinary literature on political polarization and the emerging field of computational social science.

The impact of suspension on participation in school-based extracurricular activities and out-of-school community service.

In recent decades, school suspensions have increased dramatically in the United States. To date, researchers have assessed the consequences of suspensions on adolescents' academic achievement, self-esteem, and psychological well-being. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between school discipline and youths' engagement on in-school and out-of-school activities. In this study, we investigate the relationship between suspension (i.e., in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, or both) and youth participation in extracurricular activities, both in-school and outside of school, using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002. Results suggest students who are suspended are less likely to participate in school clubs (e.g., student government, yearbook, band/choir), and are also less likely to participate in volunteer work/community service. This suggests the impact of school discipline extends beyond the schooling context. These results provide insight into how suspensions may function as a 'pushout' mechanism for youth by compromising their attachment to school.