Marissa E Thompson
Biographic Data
| ID | 4136738 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marissa E Thompson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marissa E |
| FAMILY NAME | Thompson |
| SIGNATURE | THOMPSON M E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Columbia University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9497-1400 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 27 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
What Does It Mean to Be Black? Experimental Evidence on the Situational Deployment of Racial Schemas
How do Black Americans construct narratives about the meaning and boundaries of Blackness in America today? We leverage an original, nationally representative survey experiment among U.S.-born Black Americans ( n = 3,100) to examine (1) justifications used to validate or reject another’s racial self-identification as Black and (2) how situational cues shape these narratives. Using a vignette experiment and structural topic modeling, we find that …
Policing the Boundaries of Blackness: How Black and White Americans Evaluate Racial Self-Identifications
How do people assess the authenticity and legitimacy of another person’s racial self-identification? This study explores the racial conceptions held by both Black and White Americans as they decide who they believe can—and cannot—self-identify as Black across a range of contexts. We examine how a person’s responses compare to their perceptions of how other Americans evaluate racial claims. Using a series of survey experiments, we find that respon…
Paper, practice, ancestry, culture: Racial frames and contested racial/ethnic census categories
How do individuals and groups frame their appeals to change official racial/ethnic categories and explain their perceptions of the underlying boundaries that such categories reflect? This article draws from the case of revisions to the 2030 U.S. census categories using the universe of the over 20,000 public comments submitted to the federal government in response to proposed changes. Using an integrated computational text analysis and qualitative…
Gender Segregation and Decision-Making in Undergraduate Course-Taking
Gender segregation across fields of study is a persistent problem in higher education. Although a large body of literature has illustrated both gendered patterns in major choice as well as overall gender segregation across academic majors, comparatively less attention has been paid to an important building block for gender inequality: college courses. In this study, we examine the process of how students choose courses and the implications for ge…
My School District Isn't Segregated: Experimental Evidence on the Effect of Information on Parental Preferences Regarding School Segregation
U.S. public schools are increasingly segregated by income, resulting in substantial educational inequality among U.S. schoolchildren. We conducted a nationally representative survey to explore the relationship between parental beliefs about and preferences regarding school segregation. Using experimental manipulation, we tested if learning about levels of school segregation in their local school district affects a parent's attitudes and preferenc…
The effect of academic outcomes, equity, and student demographics on parental preferences for schools: Evidence From a Survey Experiment
How does competition for school resources, along with racial and socioeconomic biases, shape parental preferences for schools? In this article, I investigate how school attributes affect preferences and choice, which sheds light on the processes that maintain school segregation. To do so, I conduct a survey experiment that explores parental preferences and the tradeoffs inherent in the process of school selection using school profiles that resemb…
Examining the Black Gender Gap in Educational Attainment: The Role of Exclusionary School Discipline & Criminal Justice Contact
Black men and women have different levels of average educational attainment, yet few studies have focused on explaining how and why these patterns develop. One explanation may be inequality in experiences with institutional punishment through exclusionary school discipline and criminal justice exposure. Drawing on intersectional frameworks and theories of social control, I examine the long-term association between punishment and the Black gender …
The Role of Early Schooling in Shaping Inequality in Academic, Executive Functioning, and Social-Emotional Skills
Children from historically marginalized racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups, on average, score lower on widely used assessments of academic, executive functioning, and social-emotional skills at kindergarten entry, but the extent to which these differences are shaped by exposure to early schooling is unclear. Using data from a public prekindergarten and kindergarten program in Boston, we leverage a seasonal comparison design to examine how pat…
Uneven Progress: Recent Trends in Academic Performance Among U.S. School Districts
We use data from the Stanford Education Data Archive to describe district-level trends in average academic achievement between 2009 and 2019. Although on average school districts’ test scores improved very modestly (by about 0.001 standard deviations per year), there is significant variation among districts. Moreover, we find that average test score disparities between nonpoor and poor students and between White and Black students are growing; th…
Grade Expectations: The Role of First-Year Grades in Predicting the Pursuit of STEM Majors for First- and Continuing-Generation Students
Earning poor grades in early science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college courses decreases the likelihood that a student will major in STEM. However, grades in first-year STEM courses do not impact students evenly, making it hard to know if early “gatekeeping” courses selectively push some students out of STEM. This descriptive study examines the relationship between grades and STEM persistence for first- and continuing-gener…
Grade Expectations: The Role of First-Year Grades in Predicting the Pursuit of STEM Majors for First- and Continuing-Generation Students
Earning poor grades in early science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college courses decreases the likelihood that a student will major in STEM. However, grades in first-year STEM courses do not impact students evenly, making it hard to know if early “gatekeeping” courses selectively push some students out of STEM. This descriptive study examines the relationship between grades and STEM persistence for first- and continuing-gener…
My School District Isn't Segregated: Experimental Evidence on the Effect of Information on Parental Preferences Regarding School Segregation
U.S. public schools are increasingly segregated by income, resulting in substantial educational inequality among U.S. schoolchildren. We conducted a nationally representative survey to explore the relationship between parental beliefs about and preferences regarding school segregation. Using experimental manipulation, we tested if learning about levels of school segregation in their local school district affects a parent's attitudes and preferenc…
Examining the Black Gender Gap in Educational Attainment: The Role of Exclusionary School Discipline & Criminal Justice Contact
Black men and women have different levels of average educational attainment, yet few studies have focused on explaining how and why these patterns develop. One explanation may be inequality in experiences with institutional punishment through exclusionary school discipline and criminal justice exposure. Drawing on intersectional frameworks and theories of social control, I examine the long-term association between punishment and the Black gender …
Uneven Progress: Recent Trends in Academic Performance Among U.S. School Districts
We use data from the Stanford Education Data Archive to describe district-level trends in average academic achievement between 2009 and 2019. Although on average school districts’ test scores improved very modestly (by about 0.001 standard deviations per year), there is significant variation among districts. Moreover, we find that average test score disparities between nonpoor and poor students and between White and Black students are growing; th…
The effect of academic outcomes, equity, and student demographics on parental preferences for schools: Evidence From a Survey Experiment
How does competition for school resources, along with racial and socioeconomic biases, shape parental preferences for schools? In this article, I investigate how school attributes affect preferences and choice, which sheds light on the processes that maintain school segregation. To do so, I conduct a survey experiment that explores parental preferences and the tradeoffs inherent in the process of school selection using school profiles that resemb…
Grade Expectations: The Role of First-Year Grades in Predicting the Pursuit of STEM Majors for First- and Continuing-Generation Students
Earning poor grades in early science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college courses decreases the likelihood that a student will major in STEM. However, grades in first-year STEM courses do not impact students evenly, making it hard to know if early “gatekeeping” courses selectively push some students out of STEM. This descriptive study examines the relationship between grades and STEM persistence for first- and continuing-gener…
The Role of Early Schooling in Shaping Inequality in Academic, Executive Functioning, and Social-Emotional Skills
Children from historically marginalized racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups, on average, score lower on widely used assessments of academic, executive functioning, and social-emotional skills at kindergarten entry, but the extent to which these differences are shaped by exposure to early schooling is unclear. Using data from a public prekindergarten and kindergarten program in Boston, we leverage a seasonal comparison design to examine how pat…
Uneven Progress: Recent Trends in Academic Performance Among U.S. School Districts
We use data from the Stanford Education Data Archive to describe district-level trends in average academic achievement between 2009 and 2019. Although on average school districts’ test scores improved very modestly (by about 0.001 standard deviations per year), there is significant variation among districts. Moreover, we find that average test score disparities between nonpoor and poor students and between White and Black students are growing; th…
Gender Segregation and Decision-Making in Undergraduate Course-Taking
Gender segregation across fields of study is a persistent problem in higher education. Although a large body of literature has illustrated both gendered patterns in major choice as well as overall gender segregation across academic majors, comparatively less attention has been paid to an important building block for gender inequality: college courses. In this study, we examine the process of how students choose courses and the implications for ge…
My School District Isn't Segregated: Experimental Evidence on the Effect of Information on Parental Preferences Regarding School Segregation
U.S. public schools are increasingly segregated by income, resulting in substantial educational inequality among U.S. schoolchildren. We conducted a nationally representative survey to explore the relationship between parental beliefs about and preferences regarding school segregation. Using experimental manipulation, we tested if learning about levels of school segregation in their local school district affects a parent's attitudes and preferenc…
The effect of academic outcomes, equity, and student demographics on parental preferences for schools: Evidence From a Survey Experiment
How does competition for school resources, along with racial and socioeconomic biases, shape parental preferences for schools? In this article, I investigate how school attributes affect preferences and choice, which sheds light on the processes that maintain school segregation. To do so, I conduct a survey experiment that explores parental preferences and the tradeoffs inherent in the process of school selection using school profiles that resemb…
Examining the Black Gender Gap in Educational Attainment: The Role of Exclusionary School Discipline & Criminal Justice Contact
Black men and women have different levels of average educational attainment, yet few studies have focused on explaining how and why these patterns develop. One explanation may be inequality in experiences with institutional punishment through exclusionary school discipline and criminal justice exposure. Drawing on intersectional frameworks and theories of social control, I examine the long-term association between punishment and the Black gender …
Policing the Boundaries of Blackness: How Black and White Americans Evaluate Racial Self-Identifications
How do people assess the authenticity and legitimacy of another person’s racial self-identification? This study explores the racial conceptions held by both Black and White Americans as they decide who they believe can—and cannot—self-identify as Black across a range of contexts. We examine how a person’s responses compare to their perceptions of how other Americans evaluate racial claims. Using a series of survey experiments, we find that respon…
Paper, practice, ancestry, culture: Racial frames and contested racial/ethnic census categories
How do individuals and groups frame their appeals to change official racial/ethnic categories and explain their perceptions of the underlying boundaries that such categories reflect? This article draws from the case of revisions to the 2030 U.S. census categories using the universe of the over 20,000 public comments submitted to the federal government in response to proposed changes. Using an integrated computational text analysis and qualitative…
What Does It Mean to Be Black? Experimental Evidence on the Situational Deployment of Racial Schemas
How do Black Americans construct narratives about the meaning and boundaries of Blackness in America today? We leverage an original, nationally representative survey experiment among U.S.-born Black Americans ( n = 3,100) to examine (1) justifications used to validate or reject another’s racial self-identification as Black and (2) how situational cues shape these narratives. Using a vignette experiment and structural topic modeling, we find that …
Psychology (7 works) · Mathematics education (6 works) · Political science (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Demographic economics (4 works) · Demography (4 works) · Developmental psychology (4 works) · Higher Education Research Studies (4 works) · School Choice and Performance (4 works) · Academic achievement (3 works)