This paper examines the determinants of entering and then persisting in physical and life science majors. Also, it investigates the impact of one’s peers on major persistence.
Current Selections
ClearThe effect of instructor race and gender on student persistence in STEM fields
To see if the race or gender of the instructor effects persistence of initial STEM majors in a STEM field after the first semester and first year.
Measuring Multi-Ethnic Desegregation
This article proposes a new method for measuring school desegregation in multiracial districts, and uses the new method to measure the desegregation effects of magnet schools in Los Angeles.
Examining the STEM Educational Pipeline: The Influence of Pre-College Factors on the Educational Trajectory of African American students
1) What pre-college factors predict African-American students’ decision to engage in post-secondary education? 2) What pre-college factors predict African-American students’ decision to major in a STEM field? 3) What pre-college factors predict STEM degree attainment among African American students?
Legal Rights, Local Wrongs: When Community Control Collides with Educational Equity
Explores the normative and political difficulties experienced by racially diverse schools that are implementing detracking reform.
Academic Success for STEM and Non-STEM Majors
1) What background characteristics, ability measures, financial support systems, and academic support mechanisms help explain retention and/or graduation for students in both STEM and non-STEM majors by the end of the sixth year? 2) Are the predictors of retention and/or graduation by the end of the sixth year different for STEM and non-STEM majors? 3) Are underrepresented students in STEM majors more likely than traditional students in STEM majors to be retained/graduated in six years when controlling for selected background, environmental, financial, and academic measures?
Academic Achievement in the First Year of College: Evidence of the Pervasive Effects of the High School Context
1) What are the unique effects of students’ demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, precollege academic performance, capital acquisition, and dimensions of the high school context on first year academic performance in college?
2) Do the effects of the high school context differ by students’ demographic or socioeconomic background characteristics?
Student Characteristics, Pre-College, College, and Environmental Factors as Predictors of Majoring In and Earning a STEM Degree: An Analysis of Students Attending a Hispanic Serving Institution
1) Are there significant differences/relationships between the characteristics of Hispanic and White students in STEM majors at a Hispanic Serving Institution? 2) What factors predict students’ decisions to declare a major in STEM? 3) What factors predict students’ decisions to change majors from non-STEM to STEM? 4) What factors predict STEM degree attainment?
Parental Choice in the Netherlands: Growing Concerns about Segregation
This paper examines why segregation by educational disadvantage has only recently emerged as a policy issue in the Netherlands. In addition, it documents the levels and trends ofschool segregation in Dutch cities.
School Segregation Under Color-Blind Jurisprudence: The Case of North Carolina
Measure segregation in terms of uneveness in racial enrollment patterns both between schools and within schools.
Examining the Academic Success of Latino Students in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Majors
1) To what extent does cultural capital and cultural congruity affect the academic performance of Latino students’ majoring in STEM fields? 2) To what extent does campus climate, as measured through academic-related experiences of Latino students in STEM majors affect their academic performance?
The Role of Inequality in Teacher Quality
Examining how the exposure of White and Black students to higher quality teachers has changed over fifteen years.
Academic and Racial Segregation in Charter Schools: Do Parents Sort Students into Specialized Charter Schools?
This article presents a dynamic model that focuses on how parental school choices affect the degree of racial and academic segregation that students experience in charter schools.
The Impact of School Choice on Racial Segregation in Charter Schools
This study examines the impact of school choice on the degree of racial segregation by comparing
the conditions in the district schools students exited to the conditions in the charter schools they entered the following year.
School Policies and the Test Score Gap
Explores the potential effectiveness of school policies and strategies that have been proposed or justified–at least in part–on the basis of their potential for reducing black-white test score gaps.
From School Desegregation to Diversity: A Close Examination of Segregation Trends and School Composition
Examine school segregation at the national, district and school level and how diverse students perceive their schools and classrooms.
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Pathways: High School Science and Math Coursework and Postsecondary Degree Attainment
1) What levels of high school science and mathematics course-taking are related to future STEM baccalaureate degree attainment among all degree recipients? 2) How do students of different race, class, and gender groups differ in science and mathematics course-taking levels? 3) How does high school course-taking account for these disparities in STEM attainment?
Lessons Learned from School Desegregation
Theories about why desegregation should improve black achievement.
How a Detracked Mathematics Approach Promoted Respect, Responsibility, and High Achievement
How a Detracked Mathematics Approach Promoted Respect, Responsibility, and High Achievement
Racial Transformation and the Changing Nature of Segregation
Examines patterns of segregation in US schools through the 2003-2004 school year.
Implications of Income-Based School Assignment Policies for Racial School Segregation
Will income-based integration create racial integration?
Structuring Inequality: How California Selectively Tests Classifies, and Tracks Language Minority Students
Processes and consequences of state-mandated classification, selective testing, and tracking of language minority students.
Who's Left Behind? Immigrant Children in High and Low LEP Schools
Examines differences in the provision of educational services to LEP students across schools with varying proportions of LEP student enrollment
Fifty Years after Brown: New Evidence of the Impact of School Racial Composition on Student Outcomes
Expand the discussion of the impact of desegregation beyond the traditional test measures & including racial groups that have been largely ignored.
The Social Organization of School Choice in Chicago, 1960-2004
Describes Chicago’s patchwork system of school choice.
Science Education with English Language Learners: Synthesis and Research Agenda
Research on science education with English Language Learners
When Opting Out is not a Choice: Implications for NCLB's Transfer Option from Charlotte, North Carolina
Examines the implementation and early outcomes of No Child Left Behind’s voluntary transfer option for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School after end of court-mandated desegregation.
Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality
An analysis of how tracking in the American school system and its relationship to issues of inequality and excellence affected the education of junior and senior high school students in twenty-five US schools.
Who Graduates in the South?
Who Graduates in the South?
Elementary School Teachers' Perceptions and Attitudes to the Educational Structure of Tracking
Explores teachers’ attitudes and perceptions about tracking in three NY State public schools.
After Brown: The Rise and Retreat of School Desegregation
An assessment of how Brown v. Board of Education’s most visible effect – the contact between students of different racial groups – has changed over the past 50 years.
Racial Segregation and Educational Outcomes in Metropolitan Boston
Examines segregation, demographic change, and educational attainment in the Boston metropolitan area during 1990s.
Multiple Facets of Inequity in Racial and Ethnic Achievement Gaps
Examine how inequitable the racial achievement gaps are and how much progress towards equity was made through changes in achievement gaps.
Fifty Years after Brown: The Benefits and Tradeoffs for African American Educators and Students
Examines the benefits and tradeoffs for African American professional educators and students that resulted from Brown.
50 Years after Brown: Segregation in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Example of a segregated metropolitan region that produced a segregated school system & defied multiple efforts at significant school desegregation.
Difficult from the Start: Implementing the Brown Decision in the Kansas City, Missouri Public Schools
History of school desegregation in Kansas City, Missouri.
School Integration and Residential Segregation in California: Challenges for Racial Equity
Analyzed elementary schools in five California metropolitan areas to examine the extent that the racial composition of schools deviates from neighborhood compositions, and investigate the potential for schools to promote racial integration.
Projections of 2003-2004: Supplemental Analyses Based on Findings from Who Graduates? Who Doesn't?
Computes the numbers of students expected to graduate from public high schools by the end of the 2003-2004 school year
Opportunity at the Crossroads: Racial Inequality, School Segregation, and Higher Education in California
Underrepresentation of African American and Latino high school graduates among students qualified for admission to California’s public, baccalaureate.
The Socioeconomic Composition of the Public Schools: A Crucial Consideration in Student Assignment Policy
Brief overview of some of the research relating to the socioeconomic composition of schools.
Tracking Trounces Test Scores
Benefits of de-tracking in U. S. high schools.
Socioeconomic Integration as a Tool for Diversifying Schools: Promise and Practice in Two Large School Systems
Influence of socioeconomic integration on racial-ethnic diversity in San Francisco, CA and Wake County, NC schools.
Charter Schools and Race: A Lost Opportunity for Integrated Education
Whether or not charter schools offer a less segregated experience than the public schools to the increasing numbers of students they serve.
How Does Racial/Ethnic Diversity Promote Education?
Explores the relationship between students’ experiences with diverse peers in collegiate settings and their educational outcomes.
When Busing Ends: Resegregation and Inequality in an Urban School District
Examination of race and class segregation within one urban school district prior to and then after integration plans were dismantled.