David Post

Academic couples : problems and promises

How do the careers and lives of academic couples differ from those of other academics? What advantages and disadvantages do they face, and what problems and opportunities do their increasing numbers present to academic institutions? Sixteen experts address these and many other questions in Academic Couples, offering new research and much vital information.

Employment During Middle School: The Effects on Academic Achievement in the U.S. and Abroad

An international debate over student employment turns on the question of whether work generally helps or harms childrens development. This article focuses on two indicators of child development that are goals in all education systems: math and science achievement. After reviewing the major theoretical perspectives on school achievement and employment, we propose a general framework for analyzing their relationship. We then present the results of our cross-national study. From the U.S., we use cross-sectional and longitudinal NELS data. In the U.S. and in 22 other nations, we use cross-sectional TIMSS data to examine the effects of after-school work during the eighth grade. Our findings from each investigation are consistent: For boys, and to a lesser extent for girls, there are negative effects on math and science achievement that are associated with adolescent employment, even after controlling for family background and, in the NELS, after controlling for prior achievement.

Children's work, schooling, and welfare in Latin America

From the 1980s through the 1990s, children in many areas of the world benefited from new opportunities to attend school, but they also faced new demands to support their families because of continuing and, for many, worsening poverty. Childrens Work, Schooling, And Welfare In Latin America is a comparative study of children, ages 12-17, in three different Latin American societies. Using nationally-representative household surveys from Chile, Peru, and Mexico, and repeatedly over different survey years, David Post documents tendencies for children to become economically active, to remain in school, or to do both. The survey data analyzed illustrates the roles of family and regional poverty, and parental resources, in determining what children did with their time in each country. However, rather than to treat childrens activities merely as demographic phenomena, or in isolation of the policy environment, Post also scrutinizes the international differences in education policies, labor law, welfare spending, and mobilization for childrens rights. Childrens Work shows that child labor will not vanish of its own accord, nor follow a uniform path even within a common geographic region. Accordingly, there is a role for welfare policy and for popular mobilization. Post indicates that, even when children attend school, as in Peru or Mexico, many students will continue to work to support the family. If the consequence of their work is to impede their educational success, then schools will need to attend to a new dimension of inequality: that between part-time and full-time students.

Educational stratification, school expansion, and public policy in Hong Kong

During the 1970s, there was increased state action in Hong Kongs previously privatized educational system. In 1971, primary education was made free and compulsory, and in 1978, free and compulsory education was extended to the first three years of secondary education. This article examines the consequences of this deliberate expansion of secondary school participation using samples from the 1976, 1981, and 1986 Hong Kong censuses to predict continuation in the two levels of secondary schools on the basis of family resources and gender. Hong Kongs expansion of education, the evidence suggests, had a substantial impact on the ability of young people, especially girls, to continue to secondary school, regardless of income.

REGION, POVERTY, SIBSHIP, AND GENDER INEQUALITY IN MEXICAN EDUCATION Will Targeted Welfare Policy Make a Difference for Girls?

Why did gender inequality in secondary school access persist after Mexico made attendance compulsory in 1993? This research reveals an interaction between geography, poverty, and sibship structure in contributing to the underrepresentation of girls in Mexicos poorer southern states. Using regional and contextual information about enrollments and development, a multinomial logistic regression model is estimated. The results show that in addition to family and regional poverty, the position of girls within the sibship contributes to their remaining in or dropping out of school following the primary level and their likelihood of employment or domestic work as an alternative to schooling. The results have implications for Mexicos targeted approach to eliminating the effects of poverty on educational opportunity.

Trends in gender and family background effects on school attainment: the case of Hong Kong.

Using household census data from Hong Kong in 1971 1976 1981 and 1986 the authors constructed new individual data sets for 4 separate cohorts of youth. The new data include family background variables and allow the authors to examine the selectivity in education over time. The question of how background and gender affect educational attainment is addressed in 2 complementary ways. They first used linear regressions on the number of school years completed and then logistic regressions to calculate the likelihood of making particular school transitions. Consistent with prior research in the US Hungary and the Philippines the 2 methods yield results which are apparently contradictory. The linear effect of family background and gender on attainment diminished over time suggesting a more open educational system. However the effect of these same variables on the odds of making transitions actually increased at the higher levels. During the 15 year period examined Hong Kong attempted to expand the educational opportunities for its youth. Few nations have provided free and compulsory secondary schooling so shortly after having instituted universal primary education. One might expect rapid educational expansion to lead to a more open educational system as well. In fact while the system did become much more open at both the primary and secondary levels it also became more selective at the higher educational levels. (authors)

One Country Two Peoples

This article weighs the demographic evidence for either assimilation or separation among Hong Kong residents who were born in British Colonial Hong Kong or Mainland China. Using successive waves of Hong Kong census data from 1991 to 2011, we show the effects of nativity on four indicators of social distance and differentiation: residential segregation, linguistic assimilation, wage inequality and educational opportunity. On the one hand, there is some evidence of assimilation in terms of residential location and home language. On the other hand, in terms of wage inequality and access to postsecondary education, our findings suggest that Hong Kongs population could become more divided depending upon birthplace.

The Massification of Education in Hong Kong: Effects on the Equality of Opportunity, 1981–1991

Hong Kongs commitment to free schooling in the 1970s led to a massification of its formerly elite education system. Analysis of census data reveals that, consequently, family background and gender have played smaller roles in determining which children go to secondary school. There was no concomitant increase in social selection at the postsecondary level Ironically, the colonial government owed little of its legitimacy to the provision of equal opportunities for individuals. In years past, social mobility was not central to the rationale for public education. However, with the pending transfer of sovereignty to China, the weakened authority of the government has generated a need for new bases of legitimacy. It may be that guarantees of equal opportunity will emerge in attempts to bolster state authority.

Student Expectations of Educational Returns in Peru

Peru, in common with other debtor nations of the Third World, faces a domestic demand for social services that is far less negotiable than its burgeoning foreign debt. This article discusses the micro-level demand for schooling, one of the most important state services by virtue of its capacity to behave as both the cause and effect of social change. By focusing on educational demand, the complexity of a more general problem is detailed and documented. This article concentrates on the experience of one northern coastal province, Lambayeque. While Peru was attempting to refinance its foreign debt in 1983, vowing austerity measures, striking professors in Lambayeque were demanding that the central government contribute a greater portion of their universitys budget. The strike typified a problem of educational expansion that is deep seated in Peru and elsewhere in Latin America.

Cross-National Variations in Student Employment and Academic Performance: The Roles of National Context and International Law.

Most existing research indicates that working students perform more poorly than do full-time students on standardized achievement tests. However, we know there are wide international variations in this gap. This article shows that national and international contexts help to explain the gap in the academic performance between working and nonworking middle-school students. We combined data from the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study eighth-grade assessment with the country-specific information on socioeconomic and educational conditions, as well as the timing of each country’s ratification of an international treaty regulating child labor. Our multilevel analyses show that, while student employment is generally negatively associated with academic performance, this negative association is smaller in countries that by 1995 had ratified the International Labour Organisation’s Convention 138 on child labor. These findings highlight the role of national and international policy in structuring the consequences of student employment for academic performance.