Linda J. Sax

ASSESSING RESPONSE RATES AND NONRESPONSE BIAS IN WEB AND PAPER SURVEYS

Using data collected as part of the second pilot administration of Your First College Year (YFCY), a national survey of first-year college students, this study was designed to examine both response rates and nonresponse bias across four survey administration groups: paper-only, paper with web option, web-only with response incentive, and web-only without response incentive. Findings indicate that response rates vary by mode of administration. Moreover, predictors of response differed by administration group. Results are discussed in light of the recent surge of interest in online survey research.

FACULTY RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY: EXPLORING THE ROLE OF GENDER AND FAMILY-RELATED FACTORS

This study explores the role of several family-related factors in faculty research productivity for a large, nationally representative sample of university faculty members. The role of marriage, children, and aging parents is examined after controlling for other personal and environmental factors, such as age, rank, department, and intrinsic motivations to conduct research, that previous research has shown to influence research productivity. Analyses are conducted on a sample of 8,544 full-time teaching faculty (2,384 women and 6,160 men) at 57 universities nationwide. Results show that factors affecting faculty research productivity are nearly identical for men and women, and family-related variables, such as having dependent children, exhibit little or no effects on research productivity.

Undergraduate Science Majors: Gender Differences in Who Goes to Graduate School

Undergraduate Science Majors: Gender Differences in Who Goes to Graduate School Sax, Linda J., 1967- The Review of Higher Education, Volume 24, Number 2, Winter 2001, pp. 153-172 (Article) Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/rhe/summary/v024/24.2sax.html Access Provided by UCLA Library at 05/13/11 1:11AM GMT

Using Web Surveys to Reach Community College Students: An Analysis of Response Rates and Response Bias

This study was designed to examine response rates and bias among a sample of community college students who received a district-wide survey by standard mail or e-mail. Findings suggest that predictors of response and types of responses are not appreciably different across paper and online mail-out samples when these samples are “matched” in terms of key demographics. Rates of response, however, differ by mode of survey administration, gender, and race/ethnicity.

Our Incoming Students: What Are They Like?.

How do entering students compare with their counterparts from ten, twenty, even thirty years ago? The director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program looks at some current trends.

Understanding Students' Parental Education Beyond First-Generation Status

The goal of this study is to explore and compare the experiences and views that community college students face across multiple levels of parental education. The findings demonstrate significant differences across five different parental education levels, arguing that future research ought to expand current notions of parental education beyond a binary comparison (having a college educated parent or not).

STUDENT ATTITUDES TOWARD AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS

Using a national sample of over 277,850 collegefreshmen, this study examines attitudes towardaffirmative action in college admissions separately forfour racial/ethnic groups: whites/Caucasians,African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Mexican-Americans. Foreach group, analyses address the extent to whichopposition to affirmative action is driven by factorssuch as self-interest, political ideology, and attitudes about race/ethnicity. Findings suggest somedifferences in how these factors operate acrossdifferent racial/ethnic groups.

Parental Engagement and Contact in the Academic Lives of College Students

Information on the various forms of parental involvement in higher education is lacking. This paper investigates parental engagement in college students’ academic lives, the mode and frequency of student-parent communications, and how all of this varies across different student populations (by race/ethnicity, social class, parental immigrant status, gender, and year in school). Drawing from the 2006 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES), results revealed parental contact and engagement in college students’ academics to be greatest among women, freshmen, and wealthy/upper middle-class students. Comparisons by race, ethnicity, and parental immigration status revealed above-average levels of parental contact among Mexican American, Latino/Other Spanish, Japanese/Japanese American, American Indian/Alaska Native students, and students of foreign-born parents, but below-average ratings of parental engagement in these same students’ academic lives.

Anatomy of an Enduring Gender Gap: The Evolution of Women’s Participation in Computer Science

ABSTRACT Given growing interest in computing fields, as well as a longstanding gender gap in computer science, this study used nationwide survey data on college students during 4 decades to: (a) document trends in aspirations to major in computer science among undergraduate women and men; (b) explore the characteristics of women and men who choose to major in computer science and how this population has evolved over time; and (c) identify the key determinants of the gender gap in the selection of computer science majors during the past 4 decades. The data included 8 million students attending 1,225 baccalaureate-granting institutions from 1971 to 2011, with selected-year multivariate analyses of 18,830 computer science majors (and 904,307 students from all other majors). The results revealed heavy fluctuations in students’ interest in computer science from 1971 to 2011, with trends highlighting a significant downturn between the late 1990s and 2011 as well as a persistent, sizeable underrepresentation of women across all years. The study also showed that while some of the traditional explanations for the gender gap in computer science held true, there have been distinctive shifts in who pursues computer science and why some students may be particularly interested in or dissuaded from the major.

The Role of Parents in College Students' Sociopolitical Awareness, Academic, and Social Development.

This study examined the relationship between parental contact (frequency of student-parent communication) and involvement (parents’ interest and/or involvement in students’ academic progress and decision-making) with college students’ personal, social, and academic development. Parental involvement accounted for over two-thirds of the significant relationships detected, most of which were positive. Parental contact produced only 10 significant relationships, half of which were negative. The results also reveal conditional effects by race, gender, social class, and year in college.