Brian P. An

The effect of study abroad on intercultural competence among undergraduate college students

International educators have long asserted that study abroad improves students’ intercultural competence. However, the evidence is less clear than the rhetoric suggests. Examining longitudinal data from a national study of college students, this study explores the impact of study abroad on intercultural competence while accounting for a host of precollege characteristics, institutional differences, college experiences, and study abroad intent. Results challenge prior assertions and complicate our understanding of the educational impact of study abroad

The Impact of Dual Enrollment on College Degree Attainment: Do Low-SES Students Benefit?

Dual enrollment in high school is viewed by many as one mechanism for widening college admission and completion of low-income students. However, little evidence demonstrates that these students discretely benefit from dual enrollment and whether these programs narrow attainment gaps vis-à-vis students from middle-class or affluent family backgrounds. Using the National Longitudinal Study of 1988 (N= 8,800), I find significant benefits in boosting rates of college degree attainment for low-income students while holding weaker effects for peers from more affluent backgrounds. These results remain even with analyses from newer data of college freshman of 2004. I conduct sensitivity analyses and find that these results are robust to relatively large unobserved confounders. However, expanding dual enrollment programs would modestly reduce gaps in degree attainment.

The Role of Academic Motivation and Engagement on the Relationship between Dual Enrollment and Academic Performance.

I examine whether academic motivation and engagement—conditions that advocates consider mechanisms for the effect of dual enrollment—account for the relationship between dual enrollment and academic performance. Few studies examine the claimed mechanisms that account for the impact of dual enrollment, which leaves the processes through which dual enrollment influences a student’s college experience as a black box. Using data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, I find a positive direct effect of dual enrollment on first-year college GPA, which remains even after controlling for precollege variables. I further find students who participated in dual enrollment are more academically motivated and engaged than nonparticipants. Although dual enrolled students are more academically motivated and engaged in class than nonparticipants these indicators generally account for less than 20% of the effect of dual enrollment on academic performance. Finally, for some students (e.g., students who earned college credit through dual enrollment but not though examination), participation in dual enrollment exerts a stronger effect on first-year college GPA at midselective and very selective institutions than at highly selective institutions.

The role of social desirability bias and racial/ethnic composition on the relation between education and attitude toward immigration restrictionism

Abstract Social scientists note individuals tend to respond favorably to sensitive topics in surveys, but few consider factors triggering these responses. This study uses unique data to examine respondents’ racial/ethnic attitude under direct and indirect modes of elicitation. In particular, the list experiment provides a cloak of anonymity to a random subsample of individuals that allows them to respond truthfully about their racial/ethnic attitudes. By comparing responses between administration modes, this study evaluates whether social desirability pressures mediate, and racial/ethnic composition moderate, the relation between education and racial/ethnic attitudes. Findings indicate an initial positive relation between education and racial/ethnic attitudes, but desirability bias mainly drives this relation. Furthermore, there is some support racial/ethnic composition moderates the influence of social desirability on education.

Effects of School Segregation and School Resources in a Changing Policy Context

Desegregation policies have been rolled back across the country. Some advocates for dismantling desegregation argue that resources allocated to desegregation would pay off better if allocated to improve education in schools with disadvantaged populations. We test this claim by examining student achievement before, during, and after the end of court-ordered desegregation in Nashville, Tennessee. School-by-grade fixed effect models reveal no evidence that increases in a school’s proportion of Black students impeded achievement growth. Increased exposure to students in poverty curtailed achievement growth, but enhanced option schools, which bring extraordinary resources to high-poverty, racially isolated schools, compensated for the effects of concentrated poverty. Schools that became specialized magnet schools, however, did not contribute to achievement gains and in some cases curtailed growth.

The Impact of Personal and Program Characteristics on the Placement of School Leadership Preparation Program Graduates in School Leader Positions

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of personal and program characteristics on the placement of graduates of principal preparation programs in assistant principal, principal, and school leadership positions. Research Design: This study relies on Texas principal production data from 1993 through 2007 matched to employment data from 1993 through 2013. The data include personal characteristics of each program’s graduates (age, sex, and race/ethnicity), program characteristics (program type, percentages of female graduates, and percentage of White graduates), labor market location, and certification year. We employ both descriptive statistics and multilevel logistic regression analysis to examine the factors associated with obtaining employment as an assistant principal, principal, and school leader. Findings: At least 50% of graduates obtained placement as a school leader within 5 years and about 70% did so over 10 years. Within 5 years of certification, men, Latinos, and middle-aged graduates had greater odds of employment as a school leader than women, Whites, and younger and older graduates, respectively. Differences arose, however, when examining placement as an assistant principal and principal separately. In particular, Black and Latina/o graduates had greater odds of employment as an assistant principal but had lower odds of employment as a principal than their White peers. Finally, there were few program characteristics associated with placement, and differences between programs explained very little of the variation in placement rates, bringing into question efforts to hold programs accountable for such outcomes.

Does Collaborative Learning Influence Persistence to the Second Year of College

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine whether engaging in collaborative learning influences persistence to the 2nd year of college among 2,987 college freshmen at 19 institutions. Considering potential confounders such as sex, race, precollege academic ability, type of institution attended, college coursework taken, academic motivation, and the clustered nature of the data, those students who engage in collaborative learning are significantly more likely than students who do not learn collaboratively to persist to the 2nd year of college. The results of our analyses suggest the influence of collaborative learning on persistence affects students similarly, regardless of individual differences by sex, race, or tested precollege academic ability. Lastly, the influence of collaborative learning on persistence appears to be mediated by peer interactions. That is, learning collaboratively leads to greater levels of positive peer interactions, which in turn is associated with greater odds of persisting to the 2nd year of college.

Are There Cognitive Consequences of Binge Drinking During College

For this study we considered the influence of binge drinking behavior in college on students’ critical thinking gains. Findings suggest that binge drinking has a negative influence on students’ critical thinking gains over 4 years of college and that this effect was driven by students with the lowest levels of precollege critical thinking. In both a general binge drinking model, which compared students who binge drank during college with those who did not binge drink, and in a frequency of binge drinking model, which compared students who binge drank at varying frequencies during college with those who did not binge drink, students with lower levels of precollege critical thinking who engaged in binge drinking tended to have significantly lower critical thinking skills than those who did not binge drink.

The Relation Between Binge Drinking and Academic Performance: Considering the Mediating Effects of Academic Involvement

Abstract:Using longitudinal data from multiple institutions, we focused on the relation between binge drinking and academic performance. Binge drinking exerts a negative influence on grade point average, even after accounting for a host of precollege confounding variables. Furthermore, the number of times a student binge drinks in college is less consequential than whether a student binge drinks in college. Academic involvement accounts for 20% to 30% of the influence of binge drinking on GPA. In general, the influence of binge drinking on GPA is the same across gender groups, although there are some differences, which we report in the article.

A Holistic Approach to Estimating the Influence of Good Practices on Student Outcomes at Liberal Arts and non-Liberal Arts Institutions

Many higher education administrators and researchers have considered certain “good practices” of institutions as an instrumental way to improve student outcomes. Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) seven principles of good practice has been particularly salient in defining these practices. Often, prior studies only select some of the seven principles for their analysis. Even studies that consider several principles of good practice on student outcomes typically examine the net effect of each principle instead of assessing how these principles holistically influence student outcomes. Using structural equation modeling, we test a basic conceptual framework where we investigate the contribution of the seven principles on a global measure of good practices (GP), as well as the influence of GP on a multitude of student outcomes. We further test whether liberal arts colleges promote an institutional ethos of good practices as compared to non-liberal arts colleges. Overall, the majority (but not all) of the principles affect GP. Moreover, we find partial evidence that liberal arts colleges foster an institutional ethos of good practices. Although a commitment to foster good practices may create a supportive environment that influences student outcomes, this commitment may lead to unintended consequences for those with little exposure to these good practices.