Racially restrictive housing covenants, their diffusion, and the motivations of those who created them in the northern cities of America in the early 20th century are thoroughly covered within the discipline of political science. Despite the existing literature about racially restrictive covenants, there is very little existing literature or research that covers outcomes (education, political participation, power distribution, income disparities, etc.) in relation to racially restrictive covenants. This thesis investigates how the legacy of racially restrictive housing covenants impacted modern educational outcomes, specifically graduation rates, in the city of Chicago. The methodological approach includes both qualitative and quantitative analysis of historical maps, population demographic distribution, court cases, housing policy, and high-school graduation rates (from 1999–2014). Based on historical background and data analysis, the racially restrictive housing covenants in the city of Chicago led to pervasive patterns of neighborhood segregation that contribute to the racialization of educational outcomes. These findings help to provide quantitative evidence that the legacy and impact of racially restrictive housing covenant policy still impact modern living conditions and outcomes in education and possibly beyond.

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The rise of “zero tolerance” discipline practices in US primary and secondary schools has become increasingly well documented by the media and empirical studies. Despite the extensive scholarship that has emerged from these conversations, many of these analyses are limited in their scope and do not connect the phenomena of zero tolerance in schools to the diverse, shifting forces at play within American politics and policy today. As such, the goal of this work is to synthesize ideas about zero tolerance across disciplines by integrating historical thought, philosophical frameworks of punishment, shifting policy goals within the US education system, the sociological constructions of “deviance” and “disorder” in the context of the US criminal justice system, and empirical data directly from a school district to develop particular policy recommendations accordingly. The primary research question of this analysis is: What are the effects of zero tolerance discipline policies on educational outcomes? To answer this question, Chicago Public Schools will be employed as a case study from which lessons for the nation at large will be drawn. Ultimately, this analysis ends up revealing the ways in which zero tolerance policies stem from much deeper forces at play between dominant and marginal groups, and what comes to be defined as “deviance” in relation to a socially constructed system of “order.”