Ryan S. Wells

Why Do More Women than Men Want to Earn a Four-Year Degree?: Exploring the Effects of Gender, Social Origin, and Social Capital on Educational Expectations

We test the assumption that peer and/or familial influences are partially responsible fore the expectation gender gap, and examine the differences in this gap by race/ethnicity. We find that the effects of social capital differ by gender but that the gender gap in expectations does not differ by race.

Social and Cultural Capital, Race and Ethnicity, and College Student Retention

This study addresses the role that social and cultural capital play in first-to-second year persistence in higher education and examines how race and ethnicity are associated with initial levels of such capital. Using logistic regression analysis, the results show that social and cultural capital are positively significant for persistence in higher education across all racial and ethnic groups. However, results also show that certain groups, especially Hispanics, have lower levels of normatively valued forms of social and cultural capital than others. The effects for social and educational stratification are discussed, as are implications for higher education retention policies and further research.

What Factors Are Associated With Grade Acceleration?: An Analysis and Comparison of Two U.S. Databases

The benefits of whole-grade acceleration for the highest achieving students in K-12 education are widely acknowledged. However, much less is known about which personal, family, and school factors are correlated with student acceleration. Which children are grade accelerated in K-7 education? Have factors associated with grade acceleration changed over time? We analyze data from the NELS (students from 1988-1992) and the ELS (students from 2002-2004) nationally representative and longitudinal databases to answer these questions. Other things being equal, females, Asian Americans, and students living on the U.S. east or west coast were more likely to be grade accelerated. For example, females had odds of being accelerated that were 1.3 times higher than the odds of males being accelerated. Students from the northeastern region of the U.S. had odds of acceleration that were nearly twice (1.9 times) as high as Midwest students’ odds of acceleration. When accelerated students were compared to older classmates of similar achievement who were not accelerated, the accelerated students showed greater gains in achievement than nonaccelerated classmates in and throughout high school. In other words, accelerated students do not just keep up with their older classmates, they actually perform better.

How We Know What We Know: A Systematic Comparison of Research Methods Employed in Higher Education Journals, 1996−2000 v. 2006−2010

This study replicates and extends a 2004 content analysis of three major higher education journals. The original study examined the methodological characteristics of all published research in these journals from 1996 to 2000, recommending that higher education programs adjust their graduate training to better match the heavily quantitative and statistically sophisticated journal content. We examine the same journals’ content from 2006 to 2010—one decade later—through the lens of knowledge production in higher education, and explore the ways that dominant modes of research may legitimize and/or delegitimize various forms of inquiry. Our findings reveal a field that continues to be dominated by quantitative methods and which is increasingly using more advanced statistical techniques. We discuss the tensions of a field more aligned with federal and state priorities and therefore better positioned to influence policy, but with a concomitantly contracted scope of and approach to inquiry. We also discuss implications for the training of graduate students, professionals, and policymakers as well as implications for publishing and researching other aspects of knowledge production in higher education.

Students with Disabilities in Higher Education: A Review of the Literature and an Agenda for Future Research

In this chapter, we describe the current state of theory and research related to the higher education experiences of students with disabilities. It begins with a review of the legal and theoretical frameworks that shape perceptions and social understandings of disability, and influence the educational experiences of students with disabilities. We next review recent empirical studies in order to describe access trajectories, college experiences, and college outcomes for students with disabilities. Building from this discussion, the theoretical and methodological perspectives most frequently employed in research focused on students with disabilities are described. The chapter then discusses the modifications that could be made to three major higher education conceptual models—Weidman’s (1989) conceptual model of undergraduate socialization; Perna’s (2006) conceptual model of college choice; and Hurtado, Alvarez, Guillermo-Wann, Cuellar, and Arellano’s (2012) Multicontextual Model for Diverse Learning Environments— to take into account the experiences of students with disabilities:. We conclude the chapter with recommendations regarding topics and strategies for future scholarly work.

Segregation and Immigration: An Examination of School Composition for Children of Immigrants.

Immigration in the U.S. continues to increase and to become increasingly diverse. About 20% of U.S. students are children of immigrants. This phenomenon is occurring as schools are racially and ethnically resegregating even as race-based decision making for K-12 schooling has been severely limited. This study examines school segregation for children of immigrants who are often an overlooked component of this phenomenon. Using a large national dataset, the author explores the extent to which children of immigrants are segregated from non-immigrants as well as the extent to which they are segregated from Whites. This study also examines how these relationships vary based on a students race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Results show a society where children of immigrants are segregated in school, which carries with it a host of likely negative outcomes. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed.

Who is shaping the field? Doctoral education, knowledge creation and postsecondary education research in the United States

ABSTRACT Previous research has found the field of higher education, particularly in the United States, is dominated by functionalist approaches, a preponderance of survey data, and the ubiquitous use of advanced quantitative methods to investigate educational phenomena. This descriptive study aims to illuminate why the field is constructed in this way. Given that researchers have found doctoral education to influence the way scholars think about, conduct and disseminate their research, we explore the educational histories of published authors in the field with the belief that examining the distribution of institutional affiliations among authors may shed light on the dominance of particular approaches to knowledge production within the field. Specifically, we examined doctoral institutional affiliations of authors published in three top-tier higher education journals in the United States from 2006 to 2010. Our analysis illuminates that knowledge produced in the field of higher education is highly concentrated among both authors and particular institutions. Our findings raise important questions about the social processes governing knowledge generation within the field – including questions about the extent to which such concentration is or is not desirable.

Volunteering for College? Potential Implications of Financial Aid Tax Credits Rewarding Community Service

President Obama has proposed a financial aid policy whereby students who complete 100 hours of community service would receive a tax credit of US

The work-to-college transition: postsecondary expectations and enrolment for young men and women in the US labour force

4,000 for college. After lawmakers cut this proposal from previous legislation, the administration was tasked with studying the feasibility of implementation. However, the implications of the policy for potential and current college students are unclear, especially for students who have the most financial need. Given existing literature about student volunteerism, tax credits, and inducements as policy instruments, combined with analyses of student volunteerism from three national data sets, this study explores disparities in student volunteerism by income level and school type and draws implications from these results concerning who would be most likely to benefit from such a policy.

Mirror on the Field: Gender, Authorship, and Research Methods in Higher Education’s Leading Journals

This paper investigates early employment influences on postsecondary expectations and enrolment for working men and women who have recently completed high school in the United States. We find that young workers still have very high expectations for postsecondary education, but that women are more likely to enrol. However, this difference is primarily due to high rates of female enrolment in less-than-four-year institutions. Job training from one’s employer predicts higher odds of future postsecondary enrolment, but this relationship appears only for men. Recommendations are given for assisting young workers in realising postsecondary expectations and advancing social mobility, as well as how gender must be considered in these efforts.