Mark C. Hogrebe

Science and the City: Thinking Geospatially about Opportunity to Learn.

The purpose of this article is to describe several conceptual areas that warrant attention by scholars and practitioners interested in improving access and opportunity to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning in urban cities. Thinking conceptually about the urban context has been a part of intellectual traditions in the social sciences for decades. Like in other fields of study, for example, economics, sociology, and political science, the treatment of urban communities as unique geospatial organizations in terms of sites of intervention and policy reform has a history in STEM education, but the aligned research and development strategy is best characterized as nascent.

From visuals to vision: using GIS to inform civic dialogue about African American males

There has been considerable attention in the sociology and public policy literatures to the relationship between spatial arrangements and opportunity structures in metropolitan America. This article attempts to address this issue in the context of Metro St. Louis, Missouri, a center of biotechnology development, where the majority population in St. Louis City is African American. More specifically, it does so by examining extant social science literature related to African American males in urban America. A focus is on highlighting developmental challenges and opportunities for intervention where spatial arrangements are a consideration. Next, it provides an argument that metropolitan regions attempting to intervene would benefit from Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as part of a visual political literacy project aimed to support civic engagement and capacity related to African American male life course development. The metropolitan region of St. Louis is used as a case to illustrate the possibilities of geospatial tools as information sources. The article concludes with a recommendation for greater investment in resources to support sustained community‐based research designed to inform understandings of geospatial arrangements that are linked to social disparities.

Geospatial Perspective: Toward a Visual Political Literacy Project in Education, Health, and Human Services

Unless there is a radical departure from recent trends, poverty and affluence are almost certain to become geographically concentrated at high levels throughout the world early next century. . . . This ecological structure constitutes a radical departure from the past, and creates the potential for a new geopolitical order capable of compounding the benefits and liabilities of class by superimposing administrative segmentation on economic segregation.

Talking through the problems: a study of discourse in peer-led small groups

Increasingly, studies are investigating the factors that influence student discourse in science courses, and specifically the mechanisms and discourse processes within small groups, to better understand the learning that takes place as students work together. This paper contributes to a growing body of research by analyzing how students engage in conversation and work together to solve problems in a peer-led small-group setting. This qualitative study evaluates video of Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) sessions in general chemistry, with attention to both the activity structures and the function of discourse as students undertook different types of problems across one semester. Our findings suggest that students talk their way through the problems; practicing a combination of regulative and instructional language to manage the group dynamics of their community of peer learners while developing and using specific disciplinary vocabulary. Additionally, student discourse patterns revealed a focus on the process of complex problem-solving, where students engage in joint decision-making by taking turns, questioning and explaining, and building on one anothers ideas. While students in our study engaged in less of the deeper, meaning-making discourse than expected, these observations about the function of language in small-group learning deepens an understanding of how PLTL and other types of small-group learning based on the tenets of social constructivism may lead to improvements in science education, with implications for the structure of small-group learning environments, problem design, and training of peer group leaders to encourage students to engage in more of the most effective discourse in these learning contexts.

Poverty and Algebra Performance: A Comparative Spatial Analysis of a Border South State

This research uses two measures of poverty, as well as mobility and selected education variables to study how their relationships vary across 543 Missouri high school districts. Using Missouri and U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS) data, local R2s from geographically weighted regressions are spatially mapped to demonstrate differences in relationships between poverty, mobility, and educational variables across districts. Results show the importance of allowing relationships to “vary” between districts and that using a global measure fails to capture important local contextual variation. Missouri and ACS poverty measures are related to each other and to selected education variables, but the strength of relationship varies significantly by regions across the state. The implications for future research and policy are discussed.

Show Me: Diversity and Isolation Indicators of Spatial Segregation within and across Missouri's School Districts.

ABSTRACT Our study examines patterns of spatial segregation using diversity and isolation indicators within and across Missouri school districts. Evaluating segregation from a critical spatial perspective emphasizes the importance of place when evaluating the quality of educational opportunity for diverse student populations. The methodology involves the use of geographic information systems (GIS) maps that capture diversity and isolation dimensions of segregation using racial census tracts. Our spatial approach indicated statistically significant high and low diversity clusters, along with nearby areas of contrasting diversity. The analysis represents a methodological contribution to the study of quantifying segregation dimensions that more accurately represent how they operate across geographic space. In order for educational opportunity to improve, more walkable neighborhoods with high-quality schools in urban communities and interdistrict school transfer options in metropolitan regions are needed. If constructed and established at the same time, these reforms provide cost–benefit advantages to local and state residents.

The Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship Program: A Pre- and Post-Grutter Analysis

Abstract The study compares the demographics and degree attainment in Washington University’s (the University) Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship Program (CGFP) in the pre- and post-Grutter era. The fellowship program’s aims included bolstering African American graduate degree completion and preparing African American faculty members. The 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger affirmative action case serves as a break point to compare the 1991–2003 cohorts and the 2004–2008 cohorts. Interviews of key leaders give a historical perspective on the program’s mission. Institutional data organized to form two cohorts, pre- and post-Grutter comparison groups, provide insight into demographic trends and degree attainment. The CGFP realized its original mission to diversify the professoriate by supporting underrepresented graduate students. The vast majority of alumni in both cohorts earned a graduate degree and earned their intended degrees. The two cohorts achieved high doctoral degree attainment. Time-to-degree findings and placement within the academy demonstrated a positive outcome. However, the program post-Grutter has generated fewer African American participants. In the post-Grutter era, the University needs to develop new strategies to increase the racial diversity of graduate education. As a complementary resource, the CGFP, as part of a broader portfolio of programmatic and policy tools designed to diversify, merits continued investment. Only a fraction of programs focused on African American doctoral attainment publish evaluation data. The study captures the programmatic effects of the Grutter decision at an elite American university.