Are girls always good for boys? Short and long term effects of school peers’ gender

This paper exploits idiosyncratic variations in school cohorts’ gender composition to investigate the short and long-term effects of school peers’ gender. Using French administrative data over the 2008–2012 period, it shows that the proportion of female peers’ in middle school not only affects students’ contemporaneous performance but also influences their subsequent educational attainment. More specifically, a larger share of girls among school peers increases girls’ test scores, reduces their dropout rates and increases their probability to graduate from high school several years later, especially in the scientific track. By contrast, it increases boys’ probability to attend a vocational school and decreases their high school graduation rate. I find suggestive evidence that these effects partially operate through a negative effect of opposite-gender peers on students’ school behaviour and through an adjustment of teacher behaviour based on the gender composition of the classroom.     

The effects of interrupted enrollment on graduation from college: Racial, income, and ability differences

We present a multiple spells-competing risks model of stopout, dropout, reenrollment, and graduation behavior. We find that students who experience an initial stopout are more likely to experience subsequent stopouts (occurrence dependence) and are less likely to graduate. We also find evidence of the impact of the length of an initial spell on the probability of subsequent events (lagged duration dependence). We simulate the impacts of race, family income, and high school performance on student behavior and show that there are often very large differences between unadjusted rates of student outcomes and adjusted rates. Differences in student performance often ascribed to race are shown to be the result of income, age at entry, and high school performance.     

学习障碍初中生同伴交往结构特点研究

本研究选取学习障碍初中学生和与其对照的普通初中学生183名为研究对象,采用调查表和访谈提纲对初中生进行访谈和调查。研究结果表明,学习障碍初中生的交友范围整体比普通初中生广,部分同伴来源于网络和社会上的青少年;绝大多数的学习障碍初中生同伴社会圈子较小,同伴数量也明显比普通学生少;学习障碍初中生更喜欢找比自己年龄小者作为同伴;学习障碍初中生选择同性同伴的比率高于普通初中生,同伴结构相对单一。     

School connectedness and high school graduation among maltreated youth

Maltreated youth have higher rates of school dropout than their non-maltreated peers. School connectedness is a modifiable predictor of school success. We hypothesized maltreated youth’s school connectedness (supportive relationships with adults at school and participation in school clubs) would be positively associated with high school graduation. We included youth with at least one Child Protective Services (CPS) report by age twelve from Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect, a prospective cohort study. Participation in extracurricular activities and adult relationships reported at age 16, high school graduation/General Education Development (GED) status reported at age 18, and demographics were provided by youth and caregivers. Maltreatment data were coded from CPS records. The outcome was graduation/receipt of GED. Multivariable logistic regressions examined the association between school connectedness and graduation/receipt of GED, controlling for confounders. In our sample of 318 maltreated youth, 73.3% graduated. School club was the only activity with a statistically significant association with graduation in bivariate analysis. Having supportive relationships with an adult at school was not significantly associated with graduation, though only 10.7% of youth reported this relationship. Maltreated youth who participated in school clubs had 2.54 times the odds of graduating, adjusted for study site, gender, poverty status, caregiver high school graduation status, and age at first CPS report (95% CI: [1.02, 6.33]). Few maltreated youth reported relationships with adults at school, and additional efforts may be needed to support these vulnerable youth. School club participation may represent an opportunity to modify maltreated youth’s risk for school dropout.     

Disabled Peers and Student Performance: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from China

This paper analyzes the academic peer influence of disabled students in the classroom, exploiting the random student–classroom assignment within middle schools in China. We show that the share of disabled students in a class has a significant negative impact on the academic achievement of their non-disabled classmates. This adverse influence remains largely stable over time when the classroom composition stays constant. We further find that the social spillovers of disabled students are attributable to their disability status rather than to their disability-correlated characteristics. An investigation into the mechanisms shows that disabled children lead to worsened learning environment and increased social interactions of their classmates with disruptive peers at school. There is no evidence that disabled children impair the learning efforts or the educational aspirations of non-disabled students in the same classroom.     

Despite Our Best Intention: Students Relate How Social Promotion Hurt Them and What Changes They Believe will Help Them

The paper researches the practice of social promotion, where students who fail due to a lack of comprehension of grade level material are promoted along with their classmates who passed. Student and parent interviews, student surveys, and data from students’ graduation records are used to determine that social promotion does not improve the students’ education, instead students who are socially promoted are more likely to dropout of high school, less likely to graduate high school on time or at all, and the alternative practices are needed if students are to be successful and graduate high school.     

Have State Accountability and High-Stakes Tests Influenced Student Progression Rates in High School?

The question addressed in this paper is whether there are signs that students' progression through high school to graduation has been affected by the efforts to increase school accountability, including high-stakes exit exams. If such accountability systems were able to raise student academic performance significantly in elementary and middle school, these same students should be more likely to succeed academically in high school and graduate with their cohort. If state accountability systems also attempt to raise minimum standards for high school graduation by requiring exit tests, as many do, this could have the opposite effect of lowering high school graduation rates by putting yet one more barrier in the way of lower-performing students completing requirements.     

Emerging from the Pipeline: African American Students,Socioeconomic Status,and College Experiences and Outcomes

This study focuses on how social class affects the college experiences and outcomes for African American students in 4-year colleges and universities. Using a national, longitudinal data base, the findings indicate that low SES African American students have less contact with faculty, study less, are less involved with student organizations, work more, and have lower grades than do their high SES peers or all African American students. Furthermore, 9 years after entering college, low SES students report lower incomes, lower rates of degree attainment and lower aspirations than their high SES peers, and were less likely to have attended graduate school. Logistic regression results indicate that sex, college GPA, and plans following college significantly affect the likelihood that a student will attend graduate school.

Naturally Acquired Mentoring Relationships and Young Adult Outcomes Among Adolescents with Learning Disabilities

We evaluated whether having a naturally acquired mentor during adolescence was associated with improved adult outcomes among youth with learning disabilities (YLD). Mentored youth were more likely to have graduated from high school, reported a higher level of self‐esteem, and reported a higher overall number of positive outcomes than nonmentored youth. Mentorship by teachers/guidance counselors was associated with larger differences in high school graduation rates and self‐esteem compared to nonmentored youth whereas mentorship by nonteachers was associated with smaller changes in self‐esteem and no differences in high school completion rates. Future research should include more in‐depth, objective assessments of youths’ learning disabilities, consideration of interactions with concurrent risk factors, and efforts to clarify optimal strategies for mentoring support of YLD.     

Follow-up of postsecondary-age rural learning disabled graduates and dropouts

This article reports the dropout rates, basic skills competency levels, and employment status of a group of semi-rural learning disabled postsecondary-age youth and a control group of nonlearning disabled same-age peers. Findings indicated significantly higher dropout rates and significantly lower basic skills competency levels among learning disabled youth. Learning disabled graduates and dropouts were not different in how they fared in the employment market for the group, nor were they different compared to peers. Educational implications of these findings and future suggestions for follow-up research are discussed.     

The Educational Attainment Process Among Adolescents with Disabilities And Children of Parents with Disabilities

This article uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) to examine the relationship between disability, parental and youth university expectations in 1997, and youth high school completion and university enrolment by 2003. Results indicate that educational attainment is not equal for young adults with and without disabilities in the United States. Parents—but not adolescents—are likely to reduce their educational expectations when adolescents have a mild or serious disability, net of school performance. These parental—but not adolescent—expectations are significantly associated with high school completion. Finally, even after controlling for educational expectations and school performance, youth with serious disabilities are much less likely to graduate from high school than youth without disabilities. Despite the considerable strides made in the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students with disabilities are not achieving educational parity in graded schooling.     

The impact of legalized abortion on high school graduation through selection and composition

This analysis examines whether the legalization of abortion changed high school graduation rates among the children selected into birth. Unless women in all socio-economic circum-stances sought abortions to the same extent, increased use of abortion must have changed the distribution of child development inputs. I find that higher abortion ratios are associated with higher graduation rates for black males, but not other demographic groups. In a pooled analysis, I find that abortion has a significant negative impact on graduation rates. The effect disappears when I control for ethnicity. The cohorts born between 1965 and 1979 contained falling shares of whites, who have relatively high graduation rates. Regression results indicate abortion ratios are linked with the fertility differences between ethnicities, which suggests this is a channel of influence. Overall, the relationship between abortion exposure and educational attainment is small. A standard deviation change in abortion might move the national graduation rate by less than three-tenths of a percentage point.     

Social Competence of Learning Disabled Children: Cognitive and Emotional Aspects

The aim of the study was to investigate the structure of social competence among learning disabled children, as reported by themselves and their teachers, and the cognitive and emotional aspects that mediate its level. The sample consisted of 40 learning disabled children and 37 matched nondisabled children. Within Harter's competence model and Schaefer's spherical model, the learning disabled group demonstrated lower levels of competence and adjustment and a less mature concept of competence than did their peers. The social competence of the learning disabled children was accounted for by emotional and physical aspects of competence, similar to that found in younger and in children with an intellectual disability, whereas the social competence of the nondisabled peers was accounted for by a combination of academic, cognitive and self‐esteem aspects. Teachers rated the social competence of both groups of children as mediated by introversion and general competence. However, teachers added physical competence to the explanation of the learning disabled group's social competence, whereas they added task orientation to the explanation for the nondisabled group. Intervention planning should be geared toward increasing the social competence of LD children, through alerting teachers to their less mature self‐competence concept, with its special emphasis on nonacademic aspects.     

经管类本科毕业论文质量控制点选取与对策

经管类本科生毕业论文的质量控制一直以来是本科教育质量管理的重要环节。随着高校扩招和师资短缺以及青年教师大幅增加等因素的出现,使得经管类本科生毕业论文的质量控制成为检验教学质量重要方面之一。本文针对上述情况分析了经管类本科毕业论文撰写过程的特点及存在的质量问题,设计了毕业论文质量控制点,提出了毕业论文质量控制对策。     

When Dropping Out is Not a Permanent High School Outcome: Student Characteristics,Motivations, and Reenrollment Challenges

The customary perception is that students who drop out vanish from school enrollment rosters for good. This is an incomplete picture of the complex dropout story; dropping out is not necessarily a permanent high school outcome. Following the enrollment and course history of a district cohort of first-time 9th graders, this article documents the cohort's dropout, reenrollment, and graduation outcomes. One-third of dropouts reenrolled in district high schools, and older students and students behind in course credits were less likely to reenroll than other dropouts. Interviews with district administrators, high school principals, and reenrollees examined student motivations for reenrolling and challenges districts face when dropouts reenroll. Dropouts return primarily because of limited employment opportunities and efforts of school leaders to facilitate their return. Yet reenrollment created district challenges related to funding, accountability, and getting students who had dropped out on track to graduate.     

Vocational education and students with learning disabilities

This inquiry focuses on the status of nearly 500 students with learning disabilities in 17 state-operated regional vocational-technical schools in a northeastern state. The inquiry addressed four primary concerns: patterns of assessment, career choice, school marks, and attendance. The data indicate that a variety of instruments were used in the assessment process and that the overall grade equivalent levels of attainment ranged between fifth- and seventh-grade levels. Children defined as learning disabled participated in a large number of vocational trade specialties and some 50% or more had school marks indicating that they were passing in these areas. Attendance was high. Many children with learning disabilities successfully perform in competitive vocational education programs designed to produce proficiency at the level of journey person.     

Occupational and educational aspirations and attainment of young adults with and without LD 2 years after high school completion

A national longitudinal database was used to compare the aspirations and attainment of individuals with and without learning disabilities (LD) 2 years after high school completion. Analyses revealed that individuals with LD reported lower graduation rates, were more likely to aspire to moderate- (men) or low-prestige (women) occupations, and were more likely to be employed and less likely to be enrolled in some type of postsecondary education program than their nondisabled peers. High educational aspirations in Grade 12 and successful completion of an academic or college-prep high school program were equally important in predicting 2-year postsecondary status for adolescents enrolled in postsecondary education regardless of disability status. However, depending on disability status, different predictors were identified for individuals who were either employed or out of the workforce. These results point to a continued need for transition planning and support for young adults with LD and suggest ways in which professionals can anticipate and adjust for identified differences in aspirations and postsecondary attainment.     

The success of college students with learning disabilities: factors related to educational attainment.

This study reports on the educational attainment of 62 college students with learning disabilities as compared to a sample of 58 peers matched on gender and ACT composite score (+/- 1 point or exact match). All students were native English speakers and were enrolled as degree candidates in a small, competitive, private, midwestern college. Groups were compared on age, high school preparation and performance, college grades, GPA at the end of each year of study, graduation and academic failure rate, and time taken to complete degree. Factors that may have influenced outcomes are discussed as are implications for college admissions officers, college students with learning disabilities, service providers, and academic advisors.     

Story composition skills of middle-grade students with learning disabilities

This study examined the story composition abilities of learning disabled (LD) and normally achieving young adolescents as indicated by measures of writing category, cohesion, and fluency. Findings suggest that although adolescents with learning disabilities have a rudimentary knowledge of story form, this knowledge is less well developed than that of their nondisabled peers. Students with learning disabilities also had greater coherence problems in their writing and were less fluent writers. Several important age trends were noted when results of this investigation were compared with outcomes from a similar investigation involving younger students.     

Differences in transitional needs of high school students with and without learning disabilities

Studies investigating the post-high-school vocational status of individuals with disabilities have frequently found that these individuals are more likely to be unemployed, underemployed, or employed part-time, when compared to nondisabled peers. Transition programs are needed for adolescents with disabilities to facilitate their vocational success. The current study surveyed 80 high school students with learning disabilities (LD) and 80 nondisabled (NLD) peers to determine their transitional needs. Results indicated that (a) more students with LD than NLD students are involved in transition programs; (b) career goals were established by the majority of both groups; (c) parents provided most of the assistance in making career decisions; and (d) twice as many NLD students as students with LD wanted to go to college, while twice as many students with LD as NLD students wanted to enter the job market. More students with LD than NLD students were aware of vocational rehabilitation (VR) services, but the number was still below 50%. The majority of the information about VR services came from the school.