EXPANSION OF THE ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE FUNDING OUTCOMES TO INCLUDE CRITICAL RACE THEORY

This dissertation considers policy impacts on access for historically excluded students in the United States higher education system. By conducting a content analysis within performance-based funding literature, this research highlights the exclusion of a critical theory and the implications the omission has on policy creation to support historically excluded students. The history of higher education in the United States is heavily detailed to frame the challenges associated with changing policies that have been in place for decades or centuries. To highlight the specific, often negative, impact that policies have on historically excluded students, critical race theory (CRT) is introduced to analyze the systemic and systematic racial undertones within the U.S. higher education system. CRT has not been previously applied to performance funding research, signifying the importance of introducing a critical framework to policies and research that have been in use for many decades. Recommendations for future research are included and support the continuation of challenging traditional theories and frameworks associated with policy research.