The Battle to Define Life Chances and the Distributional Consequences of the Current Education and Economic Systems in America

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willliam Elliott ◽  
Melinda Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
College Aspirations ◽  
Financial Instability ◽  
Student Debt ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
College Career ◽  
Distributional Consequences ◽  
Phd Program

Our stories serve to illustrate that divergent experiences are not primarily the result of different choices or preferences. Willie’s route to and through higher education was often perilous and frustrating because he lacked the resources with which to maneuver and bend institutions in order to meet his needs. In contrast, Melinda’s college aspirations were encouraged and rewarded by the same institutions because she had the resources to make them work for her. As stark as these different routes were, if the gap in our families’ wealth had ceased to matter once we got our degrees, some might still argue that higher education is “working” as a leveler. Sure, Willie had to try harder, wait longer, and forego many opportunities, but isn’t it where you end up that really matters? Our stories suggest that the answer to this question is a resounding “No.” Instead, our lives continue to be marked by the effects of wealth inequality and by the substantial differences in how the education system treats those who start with money and those working to get it. This is the thesis of this chapter: that wealth inequality is not just another manifestation of unfairness in US society but instead a primary force determining how people fare, including in the institutions that are supposed to catalyze equitable opportunities. Our lives reveal how assets chart one’s course not only at the beginning of a college career but also well into a college graduate’s future. In Willie’s case, even though it has been more than nine years since he graduated from his PhD program, student debt still compromises his ability to leverage his relatively high salary to secure sound financial footing. His lingering financial instability is rooted in the economic disadvantages of his family of origin, but, critically, it was not erased when he graduated.

An Intersectional Approach to the “Mobility Trap” That Ensnares Migrant Youth in China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaorong Gu
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Urban China ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
Migrant Youth ◽  
Political Economic

This essay explores the theory of intersectionality in the study of youths’ lives and social inequality in the Global South. It begins with an overview of the concept of intersectionality and its wide applications in social sciences, followed by a proposal for regrounding the concept in the political economic systems in particular contexts (without assuming the universality of capitalist social relations in Northern societies), rather than positional identities. These systems lay material foundations, shaping the multiple forms of deprivation and precarity in which Southern youth are embedded. A case study of rural migrant youths’ ‘mobility trap’ in urban China is used to illustrate how layers of social institutions and structures in the country’s transition to a mixed economy intersect to influence migrant youths’ aspirations and life chances. The essay concludes with ruminations on the theoretical and social implications of the political-economy-grounded intersectionality approach for youth studies.

“I Knew It Was Gonna Be Hard, but I Always Knew I Had Support From My Parents”: The Role of Family on Undocumented Students’ College Aspirations and Persistence

2021 ◽  
pp. 152102512110188
Author(s):  
Cinthya Salazar
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Undocumented Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public University ◽  
College Aspirations ◽  
Higher Education Research ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Postsecondary Success ◽  
States Experience

Literature shows that undocumented students in the United States experience significant challenges to and through higher education. Only a few studies have uncovered the mechanisms that undocumented students use to persist in college; in particular, the role that family plays on their postsecondary success is understudied. In this qualitative study, I examine the role that family plays on undocumented students’ college aspirations and persistence. Findings from a sample of 16 undocumented students attending a four-year public university show that their families are the stimulus motivating them to pursue higher education, as well as the support system they can rely on to manage college barriers. However, the data also revealed that for a few participants, their families are a source of stress, resulting in additional challenges they must manage as they navigate higher education. I present these findings using participants’ vignettes and conclude with implications for higher education research and practice.

Leaving Academia: The Shifting Terrain of Higher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 (102) ◽  
pp. 92-107
Author(s):  
Lynne Segal
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Life ◽  
Student Debt ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Teaching Research ◽  
Humanities And Social Sciences ◽  
Fault Lines

Leaving academia, this essay joins a steady chorus of reflection now thinking backwards over the last half century of extraordinary transformations in higher education. The industry is booming, more students than ever are entering universities, yet the academy is seen as increasingly in crisis. Staff workloads keep mounting, student debt soaring, and staff and student anxieties alike are multiplying, even as government underfunding, imposed managerialism and commercialisation threaten to reduce the underlying logic of higher education to market principles. In this context it is more urgent than ever to record the half century of struggle that opened up and enriched academic life, gradually ensuring the entry of hitherto excluded voices and topics into research and scholarship, especially in the humanities and social sciences. Drawing on my own involvement, I recall some of these always-incomplete attempts to challenge the fault-lines of intellectual life in the academy, knowing that we need always to cherish the value of teaching, research and learning, simply for its own sake.

scholarly journals Widening the net to reduce the debt: Reducing student debt by increasing identification of completely disengaged students

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Van Der Ploeg ◽  
Kelly Linden ◽  
Ben Hicks ◽  
Prue Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Retention ◽  
Predictive Model ◽  
Hybrid Model ◽  
Learning Analytics ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Student Debt ◽  
Education Standards ◽  
Performance Based Funding ◽  
Panel Review

Student Retention and Attrition guidelines are part of the Federal Government’s performance based funding framework. One of the recommendations from the Higher Education Standards Panel review is to consider changing students’ enrolment prior to census date when a certain level of engagement is not met. This study investigates this recommendation by trialing and testing a model to see if completely disengaged students are able to be retrospectively identified as at risk of failing all subjects. Using learning analytics alone to create a predictive model at scale proved to be very difficult. When applied to session 1 of 2019, even the strictest criteria included five false positives out of 17 identified students. There is promise, however, that a hybrid model of learning analytics with additional oversight from teaching staff could be a solution, but this needs further research.

Tracking in Israeli high schools: social inequality after 50 years of educational reforms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eyal Bar-Haim ◽  
Yariv Feniger
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Secondary Education ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
Academic Tracks ◽  
Track Placement ◽  
Parental Class

This paper provides an overview of tracking in Israeli upper secondary education and assesses its effect on the attainment of higher education degrees and earnings. Since the early 1970’s, the Israeli education system has gone through three major reforms that profoundly transformed tracking and sorting mechanisms in secondary education. All three aimed at reducing social inequality in educational attainment through structural changes that expanded learning opportunities and replaced rigid top-down sorting mechanisms with concepts of differentiation and choice. Utilising a data set that includes a large representative sample of Israelis born between 1978 and 1981 who were fully affected by the reforms, the analysis shows that there is a clear link between social background and track placement. Track placement, in turn, is associated with attainment of higher education degrees and income. Moreover, tracking mediates a large proportion of the association between parental class and these two adult outcomes. We also show that the low-status academic tracks that replaced the vocational tracks did not improve the life chances of low-achieving students from disadvantaged social groups.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>We analyze the relation between social background, secondary education tracking and later life achievements using registry data.</li><br /><li>The results show that tracking mediates a large proportion of the association between background and outcomes High-tier vocational tracks improved the chances of students.</li><br /><li>Low-status academic tracks did not improve the life chances of low background students.</li></ul>

Strategic management

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuriy Gus'kov ◽  
Tat'yana Gus'kova
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Strategic Management ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Educational Standards ◽  
Municipal Management ◽  
State Educational

The textbook presents in a systematic form the main content of the eponymous academic discipline, which is based on the results of the work of foreign and domestic specialists in the field of management of socio-economic systems, as well as the authors ' own research. The specifics of the activities of future specialists in the field of management, who carry out management in the conditions of modern Russia, are taken into account. Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation. It is developed in accordance with the working programs of the discipline and is intended for students studying in the areas of training 38.03.01 "Economics" and 38.03.04 "State and Municipal Management", as well as for undergraduates, postgraduates and teachers.

Employer Matching Contributions to Section 529 College Savings Plans

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 129-140
Author(s):  
John G. Kilgour
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Tax Credits ◽  
Student Debt ◽  
Employee Benefit ◽  
Investment Performance ◽  
Savings Accounts ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Tax Deductions ◽  
College Savings

The alarming increase of higher education and the resulting growth of student debt in recent years has resulted in a number of employers adopting programs to assist employees with 529 college savings plans. However, the design or adoption of such plans is complicated. They are 529 prepaid tuition plans, educational savings plans or Coverdell Educational Savings Accounts. Many states offer tax deductions, tax credits or grants. Fees and expenses vary significantly among the different types of plans and from state to state as does investment performance. This article examines these matters from the perspective of an employer considering the adoption of a 529 or other college savings plan as an employee benefit.

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