The effect of articulation agreements on community college transfers and bachelor’s degree attainment

For more than a century, community colleges have provided a postsecondary education alternative to the traditional, 4-year university. Enrolling disproportionate numbers of both disadvantaged and nontraditional students, the community college sector has seen unparalleled gains in enrollment over the past few decades. Along with these increases in enrollment, there has been a shift in focus toward transfer to 4-year institutions, as well as the development of articulation agreements. Established in order to ease the transfer process from community colleges to 4-year colleges/universities—for those students interested in obtaining a bachelor’s degree—these agreements currently exist in more than 30 states. Via two-level, hierarchical linear modeling, this article examines the student and school level characteristics of community colleges that affect transfer and bachelor’s degree attainment rates. Also examined is the impact of articulation agreements. Ultimately, while articulation agreements are not found to yield a significant effect on transfer rates, they are found to have significant, positive effects on bachelor’s degree attainment rates.     

Legitimizing Black academic failure: deconstructing staff discourses on academic success,appearance and behaviour

The continued lower academic attainment of Black (especially Black Caribbean) pupils is now well established. Yet, to date there has been no single coherent national Government strategy that has successfully closed the gap in educational attainment between either Black and White pupils or between Black pupils and the national average. Academic and policy debates centring on the causes and potential ways of addressing this gap remain marred by controversy and disagreement. This paper is based on qualitative research, which explores how staff and pupils at an inner city secondary school in the south of England construct academic success. Focusing on one aspect of the findings, it reveals that staff subscribe to two forms of success: an inclusive, low D to G grade success and an exclusive, high A? to C grade success, each of which are seen as attainable only by certain types of pupils. The appearance and behaviour of Black pupils, particularly those engaged in what is termed ‘Black street culture’, are seen as directly at odds with the aims of the school and therefore minimize their likelihood of attaining success in exclusive terms.     

Sibship composition,birth order and education: Evidence from Vietnam

This paper examines the effects of sibship composition and birth order on the school enrolment and educational attainment of children, using data from the Vietnam Population and Housing Census 2009. Utilizing an instrumental variable estimation method to address the endogeneity of sibship size, we find that it has a significant, negative effect on child education. Examining the impact of sibling sex composition, we find that having an additional boy lowers children’s average educational attainment for both girls and boys. We establish that birth order has a significant, negative effect on child educational attainment, although that effect seems to vanish with the youngest sibling. Our findings have several policy implications. First, the negative effect of sibship size on education implies that Vietnam’s lower fertility rate, the result of family planning policy during the 1990s and 2000s, may contribute to its remarkable educational achievements. Second, we find that birth order and sibling sex composition are more important than sibship size in children’s educational outcomes. As parents disproportionately allocate more resources for boys and earlier born children, government-targeted programs should tackle those issues to provide equal school opportunities for all children.     

Does test-based accountability improve more than just test scores?

This paper estimates the long-run effects of school accountability on educational attainment by exploiting two sources of variation: staggered implementation of accountability across states and individuals’ exposure to accountability. I find 12 years of exposure to school accountability leads to an increase in the likelihood of graduating high school by 2.3 percentage points but has no statistically significant effect on college attendance or the likelihood of receiving a Bachelor's degree. However, racial heterogeneity shows Hispanic students experience a significant increase in the likelihood of attending college. I rule out changes in school expenditures and teacher characteristics as potential mechanisms and present suggestive evidence that schools are classifying more students as learning disabled. Lastly, accountability is more effective in conjunction with promotion gates.     

Beyond Financial Resources: The Role of Parents’ Education in Predicting Children’s Educational Persistence in Mexico

Despite significant educational expansion, Mexico’s educational attainment rates are relatively low. Though primary school enrollment is at nearly 100%, less than half of young adults ages 18-29 have finished upper secondary school (USE). This article examines how family-level factors, particularly parental education and household wealth, are associated with the likelihood of children dropping out of USE early in Mexico – a shift away from the well-established focus on primary education. Using region fixed effects logistic regressions, I examine the role of both mother’s and father’s education in predicting children’s educational persistence – and how this varies for boys and girls. Data is derived from a nationally representative sample of USE-aged youth in Mexico (n = 8,235). Results indicate that increases in parental education decrease the likelihood of children dropping out in upper secondary school, even when controlling for financial resources and other family- and household-level characteristics. Notably, these results vary across boys and girls.     

Higher Education,College Degree Major,and Police Occupational Attitudes

Existing police research has produced mixed results regarding the benefits of college education on the outlooks of officers. In addressing many of the well-documented methodological concerns of prior research, the current study augments the existing police education-occupational attitudes literature by examining the impact of varying levels of education (i.e. high school, some college, and bachelor’s degree and higher) on officers’ job satisfaction, views of top management, and role orientation(s). In addition, among those with a bachelor’s degree, the relevance of degree major on officers’ occupational outlooks is assessed. Our results address and inform advocacy efforts to make college education a bona fide occupational qualification.     

Fathers’ and mothers’ home learning environments and children’s early academic outcomes

The home learning environment (HLE) that children experience early on is highly predictive of their later academic competencies; however, the bulk of this work is operationalized from mothers’ perspectives. This study investigates the HLE provided by both mothers and fathers to their preschoolers (n = 767), with consideration for how parents’ practices relate to one another as well as how these practices predict children’s early academic outcomes. Using an SEM framework, results indicate that while, overall, mothers provide HLE activities more frequently than fathers do, both mothers (β = .18, p < .05) and fathers (β = .22, p < .05) make unique contributions to their preschooler’s early academic skills, but only for families where mother has less than a bachelor’s degree. For families where mother has a bachelor’s degree or higher, the effect of father’s HLE practices is not a significant predictor of children’s academics when considering mother’s HLE. For all families, fathers are providing a variety of HLE activities to their young children; and, although these may occur less frequently than mothers’ practices, they are particularly important for the academic development of children whose mothers have less than a bachelor’s degree. Practical implications are discussed.     

Being Black, Male, and Gifted in Miami: Prevalence and Predictors of Placement in Elementary School Gifted Education Programs

Although it is well established that Black male students are underrepresented in gifted educational programs in the United States, due to a scarcity of longitudinal prospective research, little is known about the protective factors at the child, family, and school level that increase the probability of Black male students being identified as gifted during early elementary school. Using data from the Miami School Readiness Project, we followed 6,926 low-income Black males from preschool through 5th grade to describe trajectories for the 453 Black males (6.5 %) who were identified as gifted, and examined child, family, and preschool variables associated with gifted classification. Boys were most commonly identified as gifted in first and second grade, and 15 % of the identified boys did not appear to be receiving gifted courses. Hierarchical multiple logistic regression analyses revealed that being classified as gifted in early elementary school was more likely for Black males who (a) attended public school pre-K programs at age four, (b) had higher cognitive, language, fine motor, behavioral, and emergent literacy school readiness skills before entering kindergarten, (c) spoke a language other than English at home, (d) were older upon entering kindergarten, (e) received higher grades in school, and (f) scored higher on standardized tests of math and reading. Predictors of gifted identification in the kindergarten year were different and weaker compared to identification in later years. Implications for early identification and intervention for talented Black males are discussed.     

Understanding and Reversing Underachievement, Low achievement, and Achievement Gaps Among High-Ability African American Males in Urban School Contexts

This article focuses on the achievement gap, with attention devoted to underachievement and low achievement among African American males in urban school contexts. More specifically, the article explains problems and issues facing or confronting these Black male students in urban education settings. A central part of this discussion is grounded in the achievement gap literature on Black students in general and implications for Black males in particular. Another fundamental aspect of this discussion is the need for urban educators to adopt a social justice or civil rights approach to their work, which means an equity-based and culturally responsive approach in philosophy and action. Suggestions for closing the achievement gap and otherwise improving the achievement of gifted, high-achieving, and high potential African American males are provided to urban education educators and families.     

The Levels and Training Strategies of Chinese Higher Vocational Education

Abstract

Chinese higher vocational education has already formed a relatively complete system covering the four degree levels: associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral. The associate’s level mainly cultivates people with high-tech capabilities for enterprises. The bachelor’s level is mainly divided into application and teaching bachelor’s, whereby an application bachelor’s education focuses on strengthening the practical teaching segment, and the teaching bachelor’s focuses on strengthening students’ “dual-teaching” abilities. The master’s level includes professional master’s degrees, master’s degrees for secondary vocational school teachers who are studying while working, and professional master’s degrees in full-time vocational and technical education—all of which should make clear their own training objectives, apply flexible educational teaching models, and enlarge practical teaching segments. The doctoral level includes professional doctoral degrees and professional doctoral education in vocational and technical education. It is aimed at major practical issues in the field, strives to increase the practical contributions of degree applicants to the field, and inspires innovative results.     

Inequality of educational opportunity: the relationship between access,affordability, and quality of private schools in Lagos,Nigeria

Using data from a census of private schools in one of Lagos, Nigeria’s administrative jurisdictions, this paper explores the linkages between a heterogeneous sector of private schools and issues of school access, affordability, quality, and ultimately social mobility for households at the bottom of the income distribution. Although a large private education market has buoyed Lagos’s growth towards near-universal primary enrolment, this heterogeneous school sector appears to be providing socially stratifying paths towards educational attainment. We apply Lucas’s theory of effectively maintained inequality to assess the extent to which access to higher quality education services within the private sector is determined by cost. We find that higher-cost private schools provide students with greater opportunities to study in institutions with higher quality inputs and increased potential for progression within the educational system. As such, it is highly likely that these schools are primarily accessible to students at the upper ends of the income distribution.     

Education,work and earnings of Peruvian women

This study describes trends in educational attainment among women in Peru, and examines the determinants of educational attainment, labor force participation and employment, and earnings. Data were obtained from the Peruvian Living Standards Survey among a sample of 5644 women aged 20-59 years. Findings indicate that parents' educational variables had a positive and statistically significant relationship with the educational attainment of their daughters. The impact declined over time from older to younger cohorts. School reforms improved women's access to education. Education became more universal and compulsory over time. Daughters of mothers with white collar occupations had higher levels of schooling than farmers' daughters. The effects of fathers' education was larger. There was a wider gap between farmers and nonfarmers. Textbooks, teachers, and number of grades offered were the only primary school inputs that showed any clear cohort trend in their effect on years of schooling. As primary schools became more available, textbooks had a greater impact on school attainment. The impact of textbooks was larger for women than for men. The number of grades offered had a large positive effect which increased across cohorts from older to younger. Findings suggest weak effects of school reforms on women's likelihood of participating in the paid or unpaid labor force. Years of schooling had a very small and negative effect on total labor force participation. Woman's paid employment was influenced by age, education and training, household characteristics, and family's unearned income. Educational attainment had a small positive effect on participation in paid employment for younger women and no effect for older women. The average rate of return in paid employment to primary education was about 12%. Primary education had the highest rate of return. The return to job tenure was higher for younger women.     

Student Veterans’ Outcomes by Higher Education Sector: Evidence from Three Cohorts of the Baccalaureate and Beyond

We use nationally representative survey data from three cohorts of bachelor’s degree recipients to examine military veterans’ student loan debt at graduation and their employment and earnings 1, 4, and 10 years after graduation, relative to observably similar graduates. We also examine whether the effects of veteran status depend on college sector. Using propensity score weights with covariate adjustment, we find employment and earnings premiums for veterans 1 and 4 years after graduation, and an employment penalty but earnings premium (conditional on employment) 10 years after graduation. We find no clear evidence of a for-profit employment or earnings penalty among bachelor’s degree recipients, including veterans. We do find that veterans are as likely as similar non-veterans to graduate with debt, and that graduating from a for-profit institution yields markedly higher debt amounts, especially for veterans, despite the availability of Montgomery GI Bill benefits for these cohorts.     

The educational attainment and intergenerational mobility of black males: The 1970s and 1980s

The primary interest of this study is to discover the extent to which black males are gaining or losing ground educationally relative to other male populations. The findings of this study show that the relative difference in the percent of black and white males with a high school or associate's degree has converged considerably, but the relative gap between black and white males receiving a bachelor's, or graduate degree has remained constant. The data showed much upward and downward intergenerational educational mobility for black males. Finally the data showed that the educational attainment of black males was significantly associated with their age, their father's educational attainment level, and the size of the place in which they lived at age 16.     

Condom Carnival: feasibility of a novel group intervention for decreasing sexual risk

Young people who engage in unprotected sex are at risk of negative consequences. The current study explored pre-post assessment data from 124, mostly Black, young people (M age = 19.6, SD = 2.8) attending an educational and vocational training programme who participated in the Condom Carnival, a novel, brief, interactive, peer-led, culturally tailored, sexual risk reduction group intervention. Condom Carnival activities provided practice negotiating condom use and using condoms correctly, instruction on safe lubricant use, and opportunities to dispel myths regarding condom size and breakage. We examined the preliminary impact of the Condom Carnival in increasing participants’ condom-related self-efficacy, lubricant safety awareness, and condom-related behavioural intentions and behaviour likelihood. Despite previous exposure to prevention efforts, participants reported significant increases in lubricant safety awareness (p < 0.001) and intentions to carry a condom in the next year (Z = ?2.05, p = 0.04). Although participants reported high condom-related self-efficacy and intentions to use a condom, only three-quarters of young people endorsed intentions to always carry a condom. Findings indicate the need to explore the gap between intentions to use and carry condoms and to develop effective strategies to increase condom carrying among young people. Further assessment of the Condom Carnival as an add-on intervention to enhance sexual risk reduction efforts among youth is warranted.     

Covet Thy Neighbor or “Reverse Policy Diffusion”? State Adoption of Performance Funding 2.0

Performance funding has become an increasingly prevalent state policy to incentivize student retention and degree completion at public colleges. Using a Cox proportional hazards model on state-level data from years 2000 to 2013, this study analyzes the latest wave of policies that embed base appropriations into the state budget to fund student outcomes. Results indicate that having a greater proportion of bordering performance funding states diminishes the likelihood of policy adoption, capturing a “reverse policy diffusion” effect. States with Republican-controlled legislatures, more professionalized legislatures, and rapid growth in unemployment rates are more likely to adopt the policy, while those with higher educational attainment levels and more bachelor’s degrees awarded per student are less likely. Implications include the surprising finding of reverse policy diffusion, which suggests that states are delaying adoption until after they can observe the political consequences and impacts of the policy in neighboring states. Findings point to a policy learning effect—by observing other state’s experiences, policymakers can make more informed decisions about whether to pursue performance funding as an accountability tool.     

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 Meaning High-Achieving African-American Males in an Urban High School Ascribe to Mathematics

Many researchers, educators, administrators, policymakers and members of the general public doubt the prevalence of high-achieving African-American males in urban high schools capable of excelling in mathematics. As part of a larger study, the current study explored the educational experiences of four high-achieving African-American males attending an urban high school with particular emphasis placed on their mathematical experiences, which have been largely understudied in the educational research literature. Specifically, using African-centered worldview as the theoretical framework and phenomenological qualitative methods, the researchers examined participants’ lived experiences and how said experiences shaped their meaning of mathematics. Findings indicated teacher influence, peer influence, achieving success through sports and economic mobility were the most influential factors impacting mathematics meaning-making. Implications for educational researchers and mathematics teachers are discussed.     

Does Developmental Education Help? Findings from the Academic Performance of Adult Undergraduate Students in Community Colleges

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the association between participating in developmental education and degree attainment within 6 years for adults (age 24 and older) who entered one of 10 Ohio public community or technical colleges for the first time in 2002–2013. Degree attainment is modeled using annual data on course enrollment and completion measures. Results from both a logistic regression (with fixed effects) and propensity score matching provide different estimates of the impact of developmental education on degree attainment. The study identifies a range of intermediate educational characteristics such as credit completion and persistence that are associated with final degree completion. Based on the results of this study, educational institutions that provide adult developmental education need to design specific educational interventions that will address the barriers adult undergraduates face.     

The effects of low attainment on young people's outcomes at age 22‐23 in Scotland

A common concern among policy makers in Europe is the low level of qualifications of some school leavers and the possible consequences of this for their life chances and for countries' economic prosperity. This article considers the impact of young people's low levels of educational attainment on their later life chances, especially on labour market participation. It identifies the long‐term negative effects of low attainment and explores the extent to which family background also continues to influence young people's outcomes. It examines the outcomes of low attainment among young men and women and considers whether low attainment has a different impact on the prospects of young men and women. The article also investigates whether staying on at school improves longer‐term chances and opportunities for low attainers. These questions have strong policy relevance, and are explored using data from a nationally representative survey of Scottish school leavers.