scholarly journals Social Capital and Post-Secondary Decision-Making Alignment for Low-Income Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Rod Missaghian

How is post-secondary decision-making influenced by the types of social capital students access? This study draws from interviews with 30 students in a low-income neighbourhood to examine who they turn to for post-secondary advice during the application process. Interactions with different ties and their influence on decision-making alignment, misalignment or uncertainty are explored. I find that students who report relying more on bonding (family and friends) social capital over (bridging) ties with school personnel demonstrate more misalignment in decision-making. In contrast, those who rely more on ties with school personnel exhibit more decision-making alignment. Many students whose proposed choices demonstrated alignment also lacked overall ‘fit’ and had unrealistic aspirations, except for a select few who reported close and consistent relationships with institutional agents. These findings contribute to the social capital literature examining the potential of institutional agents to help low-income students circumvent social stratification processes.

2011 ◽  
Vol 113 (7) ◽  
pp. 1435-1476
Author(s):  
Matthew Militello ◽  
Jason Schweid ◽  
John Carey

Background/Context Today we have moved from the debate of student opportunity to post-secondary educational setting to 100% access. That is, today's high school settings have been charged with preparing “college ready” graduates. Educational policy has leveraged mandates and sanctions as a mechanism to improve college placement rates, especially in high schools with a high percentage of low-income students. However, little empirical evidence exists to assist us in understanding how college readiness is actualized for low-income students. Focus of Study The purpose of this study was to identify specific strategies that schools employ to raise college application and attendance rates for low-income students. Research Design This study investigated 18 College Board Inspiration Award winning or honorable mention high schools across the United States. Phone interviews with all 18 schools informed the selection of five case study high schools. Data collection included interviews and observations with high school educators, parents, students, and other community members. Findings In this study, we describe evidence within and across the five case schools using a framework that was generated from the first phase of this study. These schools effectively improved college readiness by developing collaborative practices around: (1) Program Management, (2) External Partnerships, (3) Leadership, (4) College-focused Intervention Strategies, (5) Achievement-oriented School Culture, (6) Parental Outreach, (7) Systemic, Multileveled Intervention Strategies, (8) Use of Data, (9) Development and Implementation of Inclusive School Policies, and (10) Routinizing or Offloading Routine or Mundane Tasks. Conclusions/Implications This study operationalizes what effective practices look like in high schools with low-income students. The findings move beyond normative models to be implemented across sites to illustrations of exemplar practices that can guide collaborative efforts to enact the specific tasks necessary to improve college readiness for students.


2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 1665-1687
Author(s):  
Michele S. Moses ◽  
Kathryn E. Wiley

Scholars in distinct academic disciplines may examine the same or similar phenomena, often relying on concepts that are well known within each discipline. In this article, we examine two related sociological concepts—capital and adaptive preferences—each used to explain young people’s choices and aspirations. We make the case that integrating the philosophical concept of the “social context of choice” into analyses using “capital” or “adaptive preferences” provides an interdisciplinary approach to analyses of underrepresented students’ educational choices and aspirations in higher education, beyond what each concept provides alone. We ground our philosophical examination in data from a 2-year empirical study of an educational access and outreach program for low-income students.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-306
Author(s):  
Jardar Sørvoll ◽  
Viggo Nordvik

In this article, we analyse the social distribution of residential property in Norway post-1945 in light of the concept of social citizenship. Drawing on data from censuses and tax registers, we examine the social stratification of owner-occupation and housing wealth in a Nordic nation of homeowners. Our study shows that residential property and housing wealth is very unevenly distributed, and that the share of low-income homeowners decreased markedly after 1990. The implications of these findings are discussed with reference to three different conceptions of citizenship: the socio-liberal, the republican and the libertarian. Our main argument is that the falling rate of low-income owner-occupation constitutes an erosion of social citizenship viewed from the socio-liberal and republican conception of citizenship. This follows from theoretical arguments and empirical studies linking homeownership to positive welfare outcomes, such as civic engagement and social integration. The latter is arguably particularly true in some high-homeownership countries, such as Norway, where owner-occupation is the cultural norm and rental housing is associated with low quality and insecurity.


2015 ◽  
Vol 105 (5) ◽  
pp. 514-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline M. Hoxby ◽  
Sarah Turner

Previous work demonstrates that low-income higher achievers fail to apply to selective colleges despite their being admitted at high rates and receiving financial aid so generous that they pay less than at non-selective schools. The Expanding College Opportunities project, a randomized controlled trial, provides individualized information about colleges' net prices, resources, curricula, students, and outcomes. Our prior study shows that the intervention raises students' applications to, admissions at, enrollment, and progress at selective colleges. Here we use survey data to show that it actually changes students' knowledge and decision-making. We highlight topics on which they are misinformed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azam Baheiraei ◽  
Fatemeh Bakouei ◽  
Eesa Mohammadi ◽  
Reza Majdzadeh ◽  
Seyed Mostafa Hosseni

In this population-based cross-sectional study of women of reproductive age in Tehran, Iran, the social capital integrated questionnaire and socio-demographic questionnaire were used. The highest mean scores were related to social cohesion and inclusion dimension (55.72 ± 11.94) and the lowest mean scores to groups and networks dimension (31.78 ± 19.43). Stepwise multiple linear regressions showed the significant association between dimensions of social capital and certain socio-demographic variables, particularly family income. Policy makers should help low-income families by designing effective interventions for improving the status of social capital in this group, because it is considered one of the social determinants of health.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-236
Author(s):  
Tatyana I. Shcherbakova

Introduction. The article is devoted to the change of economic model in the post-Stalinist USSR. It considers measures through which this model was implemented, its consequences, features and social results are distinguished. Materials and Methods. The results of research are based on statistic of the USSR State Bank and analytical reports of experts published in the issues of edition “On the pages of archival funds of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation”. The author examines the dynamic and problems of money circulation, the social and economic contradictions generated by them. Results. The transition to the inflationary model began with a political course to reject from limiting population monetary income. In 1953–1970, in various forms, the monetary incomes of citizens, including the rural population, low-income, socially unprotected, were significantly increased. These measures led to negative processes in money circulation, to which experts of the State Bank drew the attention of the country’s leadership for a long period. Among them there were: the monetary growth, outpacing the growth in the production of consumer goods and the possibilities of goods turnover; the growth of public deposits in savings bank reflecting unmet demand for consumer goods; the use of public deposits to maintain the solvency of the country’s budget; increasing of the emission. Discussions. The inflationary economic model, implemented in a centralized planning system, had visible features. First, inflation in this model was not accompanied with price increases; secondly, the emission of money was the base for raising the standard of living of the population; thirdly, in this model the social stratification between ordinary citizens and the elite was intensified; fourthly, with transit to the inflationary model the shadow economy got the development. Conclusion. The transition in the USSR to an inflationary economic model improved standards of living in the USSR but predetermined the inevitable economic crisis in the foreseeable future with a high probability of the destruction of socialism.


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 519-543
Author(s):  
Cynthia J. Bogard

A sensibility of the commons, defined as a community sentiment of shared, responsible decision-making and action-taking concerning a designated resource, is an essential feature of societies likely to adapt effectively to climate change. Impoverished Haiti provides a tragic counter example and instead is likely to be highly vulnerable to climate instability. Vulnerability is defined as likely impacts plus adaptive capacity. Haiti’s degraded environment and dearth of inclusive institutions is in part responsible for its current vulnerability. Its former slave economy has been followed by an oligarchic extractionist economy leaving little room for developing the social prerequisites of high adaptive capacity societies. These are: empowered citizens, inclusive institutions, a generalized morality wherein all have rights, and a sensibility of the commons and its concomitant social capital.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 545-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Smith

To demonstrate the sequential nature of the college application process, in this paper I analyze the evolution of applications among high-achieving low-income students through data on the exact timing of SAT score sends. I describe at what point students send scores to colleges and which score sends ultimately become applications, resulting in three main points. First, score sends are not synonymous with applications—rather, only 62 percent of score sends in this sample turn into applications. Second, the conversion from score send to application is nonrandom as it relates to college characteristics: Score sends are more likely to convert into applications when they are to colleges with lower tuition, higher graduation rates, and relatively near a student's home. Third, the timing of score sends is related to the probability of its becoming an application, whereby score sends sent relatively early are least likely to become applications. These facts imply that there is room for improvement when modeling the application process and, in addition, the timing of an intervention or policy may be critical to its success.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan F. Alleman ◽  
Neal L. Holly

Formal and informal partnerships between rural schools and their communities can provide a wide range of supports for all students, but particularly those from low-income families. In this analysis of six small rural school districts in Virginia we show how the broad participation of community groups and individuals supports academic achievement as well as preparation and aspirations for postsecondary education. Results demonstrate that school-community partnerships provide multiple points of contact for students that buttress the efforts of school personnel by extended educational opportunities outside the classroom and by meeting the needs of low-income students when parents and teachers are unable to do so.  


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