When studying schooling is not enough: Incorporating employment in models of educational transitions

Several recent studies have demonstrated the importance of incorporating qualitative differentiation within educational systems in the study of class inequality in student transitions. We extend these endeavors by broadening the definition of differentiation to include participation in the labor market. As increasing proportions of students continue their educational journeys beyond compulsory schooling, they are considering not only whether to stay in school but also whether to simultaneously enter the world of work. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth of 1997 (NLSY97), we show that family background influences not only whether students make specific educational transitions but also whether they combine those educational transitions with work. Student trajectories are also path dependent, with employment during one educational transition being related to specific transition patterns at a later point in time. Considering how students combine school and work reveals another dimension of differentiation which can be exploited by socioeconomically advantaged families to “effectively maintain” inequality in educational outcomes.     

Navigating the First Year of College: Siblings,Parents, and First-Generation Students’ Experiences

Although college education is a key to upward mobility, students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to enter and complete college than their more advantaged peers. Prior literature has illuminated how cultural capital contributes to these disparities. An alternative conceptualization of cultural capital, however, suggests that it can also play a role in social mobility. In this study, we build on and extend the literature on cultural mobility by proposing that exposure to education can benefit not only individuals but also families. We examine the influence of older siblings who attended college on the experiences of younger college-going siblings in families where neither parent has completed college (i.e., first-generation families). We find that students rarely rely on their older siblings as sources of information and advice, except in a few instances where older siblings attended the same institution. However, both the topics and nature of conversations between parents and students differ between families with and without older college-educated siblings. The primary benefit of having college-educated siblings is thus related to students’ engagement with and support received from parents. These findings have important implications for cultural capital research and understanding experiences of first-generation college students.     

Should Mom go back to school? Post-natal educational attainment and parenting practices

Although the relationship between educational attainment and parenting practices is well documented, it is typically examined at only one point in time. What happens if mothers acquire more education after the birth of their children: do they alter their parenting practices? Panel data models based on longitudinal data from ECLS-K indicate that changes in mother’s educational attainment are positively associated with increases in parental school involvement, having books in the home, and participating in non-academic family activities, but not with attitudes toward discipline. Although post-natal maternal education does not change all aspects of parenting, our findings are broadly consistent with the theory of cultural mobility and provide insights into the extent of socio-cultural mobility in contemporary American society.     

Structuring access to higher education: The role of differentiation and privatization

Building on cross-national stratification research that examines how institutional arrangements affect stratification processes, I explore how two characteristics of higher education systems, differentiation and privatization, shape access to postsecondary opportunities. Using hierarchical linear models and relying on variation in educational systems across states in the U.S., I demonstrate that differentiation and privatization structure access to higher education, albeit at times in previously unanticipated ways. Differentiation, which denotes the presence of community colleges, has a democratizing effect: it increases overall enrollment in postsecondary institutions as well as decreases the gap in enrollment between students from different social strata. Moreover, contrary to the diversion hypothesis, differentiation does not disproportionately divert students from less privileged family backgrounds from 4-year institutions. Differentiation does, nevertheless, divert another group of students: those with lower test scores. The results also indicate that privatization has little effect on overall access to higher education, although it influences migration of students, facilitating out-of-state enrollment.