Skin color,sex, and educational attainment in the post-civil rights era

We assess the relationship between skin color and educational attainment for native-born non-Hispanic Black and White men and women, using data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study. CARDIA is a medical cohort study with twenty years of social background data and a continuous measure of skin color, recorded as the percent of light reflected off skin. For Black men and women, we find a one-standard-deviation increase in skin lightness to be associated with a quarter-year increase in educational attainment. For White women, we find an association approximately equal in magnitude to that found for Black respondents, and the pattern of significance across educational transitions suggests that skin color for White women is not simply a proxy for family background. For White men, any relationship between skin color and attainment is not robust and, analyses suggest, might primarily reflect differences in family background. Findings suggest that discrimination on the basis of skin color may be less specific to race than previously thought.     

Age, period, cohort and educational attainment: The importance of considering gender

Over the past century, the United States has experienced substantial population-wide gains in educational attainment - increases driven largely by processes of cohort succession. Focusing on the adult population age 25-54, we show that there has been (1) a significant attenuation of the historical increases in educational attainment, and (2) a shift in the processes underlying educational change that differs by gender. Our analysis points to a significant turning point in population-wide educational levels, and from a research perspective, has implications for how one interprets findings when using education as a control variable.     

Plastic and immobile: Unequal intergenerational mobility by genetic sensitivity score within sibling pairs

Contrary to traditional biological arguments, the differential susceptibility model suggests genotype may moderate rather than mediate parent-child economic similarity. Using family fixed effects models of Add Health sibling data, I investigate the relationship between an index of sensitive genotypes and intergenerational mobility. Full, same sex sibling comparisons hold constant parental characteristics and address the non-random distribution of genotype that reduces internal validity in nationally representative samples. Across multiple measures of young adult financial standing, those with more copies of sensitive genotypes achieve lower economic outcomes than their sibling if they are from a low income context but fare better from a high income context. This genetic sensitivity to parental income entails lower intergenerational mobility. Results support the differential susceptibility model and contradict simplistic genetic explanations for intergenerational inequality, suggesting sensitive genotypes are not inherently positive or negative but rather increase dependence on parental income and reduce mobility.     

Opportunities and challenges of big data for the social sciences: The case of genomic data

In this paper, we draw attention to one unique and valuable source of big data, genomic data, by demonstrating the opportunities they provide to social scientists. We discuss different types of large-scale genomic data and recent advances in statistical methods and computational infrastructure used to address challenges in managing and analyzing such data. We highlight how these data and methods can be used to benefit social science research.     

A tangled web: The reciprocal relationship between depression and educational outcomes in China

Research on depression and education usually focuses on a unidirectional relationship. This paper proposes a reciprocal relationship, simultaneously estimating the effects of depression on education and of education on depression. China, which has the world's largest education system, is used as a case study. This paper applies structural equation modeling to three datasets: the China Family Panel Studies, the China Education Panel Survey, and the Gansu Survey of Children and Families. Analyses reveal a reciprocal and negative relationship between depression and educational outcomes. Specifically, early depression reduces later educational achievement, and higher educational achievement also lowers the level of subsequent depression by resulting in less peers' unfriendliness, less pressure from parents' expectations, and less teachers' criticism. More time spent on studies is not associated with higher educational achievement but significantly increases the level of depression. Children from lower SES families bear more pressure and spend more time on studies, which does not correspond to higher educational achievement but rather to higher levels of depression. In the long term, prior depression lowers educational attainment and, after controlling for prior depression, lower educational attainment is also associated with higher levels of subsequent depression. This paper shows that the lower achievers, not the high achievers, bear the major psychological burden of the education system's quest to produce high achievement. This situation reinforces these students' educational disadvantage.     

Neighbourhood effects on educational attainment of adolescents,buffered by personality and educational commitment

Research has repeatedly shown that neighbourhood disadvantage negatively influences individual educational outcomes. However, the great variation in outcomes indicates substantial unobserved heterogeneity. Looking at the rates of obtaining a basic educational qualification, the hypothesis is that individual traits of adolescents can buffer neighbourhood effects. First, adolescents with a more resilient personality may be better able to cope with neighbourhood adversity. And second, educational commitments might buffer adolescents from negative neighbourhood influences. These hypotheses are tested employing survival analysis, using six wave panel data, containing information on ten years of adolescents’ lives. The results show that resilients experience no negative influence of neighbourhood disadvantage, while both undercontrollers and overcontrollers do. And, the stronger adolescents’ educational commitments, the less they experience the negative effect of neighbourhood adversity. In sum, neighbourhood effects are found, but not for everybody.     

The declining influence of family background on educational attainment in Australia: The role of measured and unmeasured influences

The paper examines changes in the influence of family background, including socioeconomic and social background variables on educational attainment in Australia for cohorts born between 1890 and 1982. We test hypotheses from modernization theory on sibling data using random effects models and find: (i) substantial declines in the influence of family background on educational attainment (indicated by the sibling intraclass correlations); (ii) declines in the effects of both economic and cultural socioeconomic background variables; (iii) changes in the effects of some social background variables (e.g., family size); (iv) and declines in the extent that socioeconomic and social background factors account for variation in educational attainment. Unmeasured family background factors are more important, and proportionally increasingly so, for educational attainment than the measured socioeconomic and social background factors analyzed. Fixed effects models showed steeper declines in the effects of socioeconomic background variables than in standard analyses suggesting that unmeasured family factors associated with socioeconomic background obscure the full extent of the decline.     

Assessing the benefits of a rising tide: Educational attainment and increases in neighborhood socioeconomic advantage

An emerging approach to studying associations between neighborhood contexts and educational outcomes is to estimate the outcomes of adolescents growing up in neighborhoods that are experiencing economic growth in comparison to peers that reside in economically stable or declining communities. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), I examine the association between education attainment and changes in socioeconomic advantage in urban neighborhoods between 1990 and 2000. I find that residing in a neighborhood that experiences economic improvements has a positive association with educational attainment for urban adolescents. Furthermore, race-based analyses suggest consistently positive associations for all race subgroups, lending support to protective models of neighborhood effects that argue high neighborhood SES supports positive outcomes for adolescents residing in these contexts.     

Incomplete equalization: The effect of tracking in secondary education on educational inequality

This paper tests whether the existence of vocationally oriented tracks within a traditionally academically oriented upper education system reduces socioeconomic inequalities in educational attainment. Based on a statistical model of educational transitions and data on two entire cohorts of Danish youth, we find that (1) the vocationally oriented tracks are less socially selective than the traditional academic track; (2) attending the vocationally oriented tracks has a negative effect on the likelihood of enrolling in higher education; and (3) in the aggregate the vocationally oriented tracks improve access to lower-tier higher education for low-SES students. These findings point to an interesting paradox in that tracking has adverse effects at the micro-level but equalizes educational opportunities at the macro-level. We also discuss whether similar mechanisms might exist in other educational systems.     

A tale half told: State exclusionary and inclusionary regimes,incarceration of fathers,and the educational attainment of children

Paternal incarceration leads to educational disparities among children who are innocent of their fathers’ crimes. The scale and concentration of mass paternal incarceration thus harms millions of innocent American children. Current individuallevel analyses neglect the contribution of macro-level variation in responses of punitive state regimes to this social problem. We hypothesize that state as well as individual level investment in exclusionary paternal incarceration diminishes the educational attainment of children, although state inclusionary investment in welfare and education can offset some – and could potentially offset more - of this harm. Understanding intergenerational educational attainment therefore requires individual- and contextuallevel analyses. We use Hierarchical Generalized Linear Models to analyze the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health. Disparities in postsecondary educational outcomes are especially detrimental for children of incarcerated fathers located in state regimes with high levels of paternal incarceration and concentrated disadvantage. This has important implications for intergenerational occupational and status attainment.     

Parental investment in childhood and educational qualifications: Can greater parental involvement mediate the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage?

Parental involvement is important for later well-being since it conveys to children that parents are interested in their development. In socioeconomically disadvantaged homes this involvement becomes even more important. This paper asks: Can the social capital produced by greater parental involvement mediate some of the harmful effects of less financial capital? Data are from the National Child Development Study; a longitudinal study of children born in Britain in 1958. Results suggest that parental involvement does matter, but it depends on when involvement and economic hardship are measured, as well as type of involvement and parent gender. Father interest in education reduces the impact of economic hardship on education the most, especially at age 11. Both father and mother interest in school at age 16 have the largest direct impact on education. The frequency of outings with mother at age 11 also has a larger direct impact on education than outings with father, however, neither compare with the reduction in the effect of economic hardship as a result of father interest in school.     

高校党外知识分子思想政治教育工作的传承与创新

高校是党外知识分子的集中之地。在新的社会条件下,做好高校党外知识分子思想政治教育工作,是高等教育全面、协调、可持续发展的重要保障。必须在坚持一致性和多样性统一的前提下,找到最大公约数,画出最大同心圆,为国家实施科教兴国、人才强国和创新驱动发展战略,为高校的改革与发展凝聚人心、汇聚力量。     

Immigrant and native financial well-being: The roles of place of education and race/ethnicity

Immigrants’ integration into U.S. society has occupied the interest of both scholars and the general public throughout the nation’s history. This paper draws on and refines dominance-differentiation theory to explore how immigrants’ place of education (whether they completed their education in the United States or abroad) and racial/ethnic status differentially affect their ability to integrate into U.S. society. Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation and wealth attainment as an indicator of economic integration, this paper finds mixed evidence for dominance-differentiation theory. Foreign education is associated with lower wealth attainment and race/ethnicity serves as an important stratifying factor for blacks and Latinos; however, there is little support for the theory when comparing the wealth attainment of immigrants with their same-race/co-ethnic native-born peers. This paper concludes with a discussion of why place of education matters for wealth attainment in the United States and explores its implications for both educational and racial/ethnic stratification among U.S. immigrants.     

高校教育创新与人才培养模式的探索

实施创新教育,大力培养创新人才是新时期对高等学校提出的战略要求,也是时代赋予高校的重大使命。创新人才的培养是一个复杂的过程,它需要各个方面的协调发展与密切配合,本文通过分析创新教育的内涵、特征与目标以及当前高校教育创新存在的问题,寻找创新教育与创新人才培养的途径与方法,使高校人才培养适应知识经济时代的要求。     

Non-standard work schedules, work-family conflict and parental well-being: A comparison of married and cohabiting unions

Although a growing number of American parents work non-standard schedules, evidence on the consequences of such working patterns is inconsistent and limited to married samples. This study highlights the importance of considering potential differences between cohabiting and married parents in terms of the relationship between non-standard work schedules and parental well-being. Based on pooled data from the 1997 and 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (n = 2346), we find that in contrast to married parents who experience some positive associations of non-standard schedules and parental well-being, cohabiting parents are more likely to experience a negative relationship between non-standard work schedules and parental well-being. Additionally, for cohabiting parents (but not married), non-standard work schedules are related to increased work-family conflict, which is in turn associated with lower levels of parental well-being.     

改进高校社科管理工作提高社科研究水平

要解决当前高校社科研究工作中存在的诸多问题 ,必须高度重视高校社科管理工作。针对当前高校社科管理工作的现状 ,应当注重社科管理创新 ,着力做好三大转变 ,即社科研究成果评价标准的转变、管理方式的转变和管理手段的转变 ,进而促使高校社科研究水平的提高     

When everyone goes to college: The causal effect of college expansion on earnings

In this study, we estimate the causal effect of college expansion on earnings using the example of South Korea in the 1990s where the college enrollment rate increased from just over thirty percent to over eighty percent over a fifteen years period. We compare the pre-expansion cohort and the post-expansion cohort in order to identify those who would attend college because of the expansion but would not attend otherwise (compliers). We, then, estimate compliers’ earnings gain from the college expansion relative to the earnings changes of two control groups: those who either would or would not go to college regardless of college expansion (always-takers and never-takers). We find a striking gendered pattern; for men, the earnings return to college expansion is moderate and mostly driven by the increasing skill price, whereas, for women, the return is significantly large even net of the skill price change.     

知识经济与终身教育、职业教育的改革和发展

为应对知识经济的挑战 ,我国必须实行终身教育 ,促进全民教育的发展 ,构建终身教育体系 ,同时要求大力发展职业技术教育 ,并深化职业技术教育的改革。     

高等教育国际化的内涵,影响和对策

本文探讨了高等教育国际化的丰富内涵和发展趋势以及它对发展中国家的双重影响 ,提出了扬长避短 ,充分利用高等教育国际化的有利因素 ,促进我国高等教育迅速发展的策略和途径。     

教育本体论的嬗变与素质 教育本体论命题的创化

本文在教育本体论层面上考辩了教育思想史上关于教育起源的生命本能说、心理模仿说、劳动说、社会交往说等教育原生态的论争,论证了素质教育本体论关于“人体潜能素质的发现、破译和开发”命题假说革新现代教育理论的创化功能