low-SES Students Research Articles

Good will hunting: social integration of students receiving forgivable loans for college education in contexts of high inequality

ABSTRACT This article explores the black box of college adaptation and social integration of low SES students entering higher education under a forgivable loans program. It does so by studying a context of extreme educational and economic inequality. The magnitude of this study offers an unprecedented window to observe interactions between different social classes in college. Drawing on two different fieldworks, this study is based on 19 focal groups in 8 cities and 12 universities, and in an in-depth study of one elite university. Results show that low SES students actively mobilize different types of personal resources to integrate to the college environment, but they face strong objective and symbolic barriers. Results show also that regular students, on occasion, act as cultural guides for low SES students, helping them in the process of college adaption, and that colleges’ characteristics and diversity influence beneficiaries’ social integration and well-being.

Self-affirmation reduces the socioeconomic attainment gap in schools in England.

Studies in the United States show that school students from some ethnic backgrounds are susceptible to stereotype threat, that this undermines their academic performance, and that a series of virtually zero-cost self-affirmation writing exercises can reduce these adverse effects. In England, however, socioeconomic status (SES) is a much stronger predictor of academic success than is ethnic background. This study investigates whether self-affirmation writing exercises can help close the SES attainment gap in England by increasing the academic performance of low-SES (but not higher-SES) school students. Our sample consisted of students aged 11-14 in a secondary school in southern England (N=562); of these, 128 were eligible for free school meals, a proxy for low SES. Students completed three short writing exercises throughout one academic year: those randomly assigned to an affirmed condition wrote about values that were important to them, and those assigned to a control condition wrote about a neutral topic. On average, the low-SES students had lower academic performance and reported experiencing more stereotype threat than their higher-SES peers. The self-affirmation raised the academic performance of the low-SES students by 0.38 standard deviations but did not significantly affect the performance of the higher-SES students, thus reducing the SES performance gap by 62%. The self-affirmation also reduced the level of stress reported by the low-SES students. The benefits of this virtually zero-cost intervention compare favourably with those of other interventions targeting the SES academic attainment gap.

Low-Income Students in Higher Education: Undermatching Predicts Decreased Satisfaction toward the Final Stage in College

It is undesirable when students attend institutions that are less selective than their academic credentials would permit (i.e., undermatching) because of the long-term consequences for their job opportunities and wages, in particular for students from low-socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds. Undermatching may also affect students’ satisfaction during college. Research from a life course perspective shows that subjective experiences during college may have long-term impact on adolescents’ development. However, little is known about the relation between undermatching and students’ subjective experiences during their years in college, and about whether this relation is moderated by SES. From an academic misalignment perspective, undermatching may lead to less satisfaction because undermatched students are not maximizing their potential. However, from a social misalignment perspective, experiences of social mismatch when low-SES students enter the most selective institutions are well documented, and such mismatch may be less pronounced in less selective institutions. Consequently, there may be a positive relation between undermatching and satisfaction with the social environment for low-SES students. The current study tested these relations by using propensity score matching (PSM) to analyse the association between undermatching, SES, and satisfaction among 21,452 respondents (67% female) among 1st, 2nd, 3th, and 4th year college students from a cohort study among students in the Netherlands (Dutch Student Monitor), all of whom were eligible for the most selective institutions. The results indicated a negative relation between undermatching and satisfaction with the social and academic environment, both for low- and high-SES students. The negative relation between undermatching and both forms of satisfaction increases toward the last year in college, especially for low-SES students. This lowered satisfaction in the final stage in higher education implies that the negative consequences of undermatching become more pronounced after students have become more integrated in their colleges. These findings have important implications for the understanding about undermatching in relation to students’ development and for the formulation of policies and programs for promoting social mobility.

‘Working Together’: Public Libraries Supporting Rural, Regional, and Remote Low-Socioeconomic Student Success in Partnership with Universities

ABSTRACTUniversity students living in rural, regional, and remote (RRR) areas of Australia face unique challenges including geographical isolation, lack of access to face-to-face support, and technological barriers. Additionally, RRR students from low-socioeconomic (low-SES) backgrounds experience multiple forms of disadvantage compared to their on-campus peers, and require additional study, learning, and social support. Partnerships between universities and local public libraries can enhance RRR low-SES student success through increased access to face-to-face support, reliable technologies, and study facilities. This exploratory research, led by five regional universities, presents the first national-level empirical data exploring how Australian public libraries and universities can work together to facilitate success for RRR low-SES students. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with public librarians from RRR low-SES communities across Australia. Thematic analysis findings explore themes of librarians’ perceptions of students as persons; the role of regional librarians in supporting RRR low-SES students; RRR low-SES students’ access to learning support; and the critical elements of sustainable partnerships between RRR public libraries and universities. Key recommendations are provided to guide future partnerships between public libraries and universities, including building the foundations of partnerships; professional development to support partnerships; and recommendations for good partnership practices.

Examining the role of perceived prestige in the link between students’ subjective socioeconomic status and sense of belonging

Low socioeconomic status (SES) students have a lower sense of belonging to college than high-SES students. Due to the importance of sense of belonging in the college pathway, understanding the reason for this relation is particularly important. Here, we argue that in addition to having less access to resources, low-SES students in the college context also perceive themselves as having lower prestige than their high-SES counterparts. Thus, in the present research, we tested perceived prestige as a mediator of the link between subjective SES and sense of belonging to college. We conducted 3 studies in 2 different countries (USA and China), and these investigations provided evidence that the lower students’ subjective SES, the lower their self-attributed prestige, and that prestige mediated the relation between students’ subjective SES and their sense of belonging to college. The implications of these findings for understanding the collegiate experience of low-SES students are discussed.

Expectation Formation for All? Group Differences in Student Response to Signals about Academic Performance

ABSTRACTTheories of adolescent expectation formation hypothesize that socially and academically disadvantaged students are less responsive to signals about their academic performance when forming educational expectations. To test this hypothesis, I examine variation in student responses to new information about their academic performance by a rich set of background characteristics. I find little support for the hypothesis. In contrast, low-SES students who are high performing or come from supportive home environments appear to be the most responsive to new information about their academic performance. I discuss the implications of this finding for research on expectation formation among adolescents.

Signals, Educational Decision-Making, and Inequality

AbstractWe propose a model of educational decision-making based on rational choice theory in which students use signals about academic ability to make inference about the costs and benefits of different educational options. Our model is simple, extends ideas from previous models, and has testable implications. We test our model using data on Danish monozygotic twins and find that (i) students who receive a positive signal about their academic ability have a higher likelihood of enrolling in and completing a college-bound track compared with those who do not; (ii) the effect of the signal is stronger for students from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds than for those from high-SES ones; and (iii) for low-SES students the effect is stronger on enrolment than on completion. Our results suggest that signals about academic ability affect educational decisions in general; they are more important for students who do not have a family ‘push’ to avoid downward social mobility; and they affect educational inequality by making low-SES students too optimistic about their likelihood of completing the college-bound track.

“I Understand What They’re Going through”: How Socioeconomic Background Shapes the Student Service-learning Experience

Traditional service-learning pedagogy assumes that learning occurs when contact between relatively advantaged students and a relatively disadvantaged service population reduces prejudice. However, little is known about how students whose backgrounds are similar to the populations they serve process this learning experience. This study explores the connections between socioeconomic status and learning trajectories within service-learning. Students provided written reflections on a service-learning experience focused on food insecurity as part of course requirements. Analysis reveals that students with low socioeconomic status (SES) demonstrate different learning processes than medium- and high-SES students. Namely, low-SES students were less likely than high-SES students to hold prejudiced attitudes prior to service, and low-SES students emphasized a systemic understanding of food insecurity and poverty, while medium- and high-SES students were much more likely to emphasize an individualist understanding. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research to improve service-learning pedagogy for students of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.

Examining the Recruitment, Placement, and Career Trajectories of Secondary Mathematics Teachers Prepared for High-Need Schools

BackgroundSchool leaders are challenged by the relatively limited supply and high turnover of qualified secondary school mathematics teachers. In response, policy makers and teacher educators have developed various pathways and incentives to recruit, train, place, and support highly qualified mathematics teachers to work in hard-to-staff schools.Focus of StudyIn this study, we investigate the recruitment, placement, and early career trajectories of 158 Grades 6–12 mathematics teachers from two preparation programs focused on staffing “high-need” schools in the same region.SettingThe contrasting programs were both supported by the same university in the Northeast United States.Participants & ProgramsThe participants were 158 secondary school (Grades 6–12) mathematics teachers. Of these, 48 were recruited and prepared through a teacher education program with financial support from the National Science Foundation-funded Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. The other 110 school mathematics teachers were recruited and trained through the Greater Boston office of Teach For America. Both programs required two years of service in high-need schools.Research DesignIn this study, we used a comparative design. Descriptive profiles of teachers from each program were created. Then, participants’ early career trajectories were compared using logistic regression and survival analysis.Data Collection and AnalysisWe administered a longitudinal survey and created a database combining survey data and each program's administrative data.ConclusionsOur data illustrate that the Noyce scholarship-supported pathway was generally successful in recruiting individuals with STEM majors, training them to be mathematics teachers, and placing those individuals as secondary school mathematics teachers in high-need schools. The comparison of the scholarship-pathway teachers with the secondary school mathematics teachers in the alternative-certification pathway provides a useful contrast. On the one hand, the alternatively certified secondary school mathematics teachers were less likely than the scholarship-pathway teachers to have STEM majors, and the attrition rate for the alternatively prepared teachers was higher than the attrition rate for the scholarship-supported teachers, particularly after they had completed the two-year service requirement. On the other hand, the alternative-certification program recruited a more diverse pool of potential teachers and placed these teachers in schools serving a higher proportion of low-SES students.

The condition of poverty: a case study of low socioeconomic status on Chinese students’ National College Entrance Exam and college enrolment

ABSTRACTThe condition of poverty is pervasive worldwide and is multifaceted in its ability to have a deleterious generational impact. Although China has greatly reduced the proportion of people living in abject poverty over the past three decades, there are still millions of families living in extreme poverty. This study investigated the influences of families’ socioeconomic status on students’ educational achievement in China with regard to the National College Entrance Exam (NCEE) scores and subsequent college enrolment. We interviewed 132 recent high school graduates from schools in six urban cities from low-socio-economic status (SES) homes. The findings revealed that school climate (general school quality, student-teacher interactions, and peer pressure) and home environment (parental support, student-parent relationship, and family size) negatively impacted their educational achievement. Students were cognisant that the schools they attended did not have the same high reputation as schools attended by their more affluent peers and felt that their teachers openly discriminated against them. Additionally, their parents did not have the time or financial resources to help them advance educationally. We propose the low-SES Educational Achievement Framework to illustrate the phenomenon of environmental conditions that may influence the low-SES students’ NCEE scores and ultimately result in low college enrollment rates in China.

Instruction Time, Information, and Student Achievement: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Prior research has shown that time spent in school does not close the achievement gap between students with low and high socioeconomic status (SES). We examine the effect of combining increased instruction time with information to teachers about their students' reading achievements by using a randomized controlled trial. We find that the teachers' baseline beliefs are more important for low-SES students' academic performance, that the intervention makes the teachers update these beliefs, and—not least—that the intervention improves the reading skills of low-SES students and thereby reduces the achievement gap between high- and low-SES students. The results are consistent with a model in which the teachers' beliefs about the students' reading skills are more important to low- than high-SES students, while at the same time, the teachers' beliefs are subject to information friction and Bayesian learning.

Social closure, school socioeconomic composition, and inequality in college enrollments

We study associations between secondary school socioeconomic composition and college destinations using the Education Longitudinal Study, and whether the association between school SES and type of college enrollment varies by student socioeconomic background. We also examine nonlinearities in these associations, seeking to understand if avoiding poor secondary schools or seeking out affluent secondary schools drives the positive associations between socioeconomic composition and college destinations. Our results indicate that higher SES schools benefit mid- and high-SES students more so than low-SES students. Furthermore, the relationships between school SES and college destinations are non-linear. Results suggest mid- and high-SES students’ chances of enrolling in nonselective four-year colleges are higher when they avoid the poorest schools, while their chances of enrolling in selective four-year colleges increase when they enroll in the most affluent secondary schools.

University enabling programs while still at school: supporting the transition of low-SES students from high school to university

University participation rates are significantly lower in low socioeconomic status (SES) areas in Australia. Specifically, rates differ between-schools and within-schools, where inequalities in opportunities to access university pathway programs exist. The aim of this study was to test whether academic encouragement supported students’ school satisfaction and increased their desire for, expectation of and belief in the possibility of university study and whether differences were evident depending on pathway of study: the ATAR pathway versus a Year 12 access enabling pathway program called TLC110. A sample of 257 high school students (58% female) from 18 high schools, within a low-SES area of outer metropolitan Perth, Western Australia, were surveyed. Teacher encouragement was found to be positively associated with school satisfaction and, in turn, supported university desire, expectation and belief for ATAR students but not for TLC110 students. Qualitative data were collected (n = 9) to contextualise the inclusivity of TLC110 for high school students from low-SES backgrounds to support aspirations for university.

Students’ Motivation and Engagement Predict Reading Achievement Differently by Ethnic Group

The authors examined Grade 3 and Grade 5 teacher-rated classroom engagement and student self-reported motivation for reading as predictors of reading achievement. They investigated the patterns of prediction of achievement for three racial/ethnic groups (White, Black, and Hispanic) and five levels of socioeconomic status (SES) in a combined within-group model. Groups were created by crossing race/ethnicity with SES to form 15 independent groups for each grade level. Results indicated that self-reported motivation was a significant predictor of reading achievement mainly for White third-grade students; teacher-reported engagement was a better predictor for all racial/ethnic groups for both Grade 3 and Grade 5 reading achievement. Results show higher achievement for White and higher-SES students compared with non-White and lower-SES students.

Whitewashing trauma: applying neoliberalism, governmentality, and whiteness theory to trauma training for teachers

ABSTRACTDiscussions about trauma-informed schools have rapidly increased in North America, yet there is a dearth of literature on the role of the teacher in these interventions. Studies largely fail to address the needs of racialized and lower SES students who are disproportionately more likely to experience single event and chronic trauma events, but are regularly punished or ignored by the school system. This article suggests the existing literature gaps are symptomatic of the forces of whiteness, neoliberalism and governmentality on teachers and schools. This article examines how these forces determine: how trauma is defined, the construction of the competent teacher, the surveillance of the home through teacher mandated reporting, the impact of ‘no excuses’ pedagogy and zero tolerance discipline practices, and the problematic impact of ‘resilience’ and ‘grit’ talk. The article ends with implications for further research, training, and practices that might better support students who have experienced trauma .

The Impact of School Disadvantage on Senior Secondary Science: a Study of Patterns of Participation and Achievement in Government Secondary Schools in Victoria, Australia

Science and science education are recognised internationally as essential for ensuring a sustainable and prosperous future. At the same time, significant equity issues are apparent in science education. This study used enrolment and academic result data, routinely collected from government schools in Victoria, Australia, to examine the impact of socioeconomic status and school location on patterns of participation and achievement in senior school Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics and Psychology. This research shows that though non-metropolitan students are less likely to have the sciences provided by their school, where they are provided they enrol in similar proportions to metropolitan students. In line with other research, it shows that high SES students are more likely than other students to study senior secondary Chemistry and Physics, and outperform low SES students in all senior sciences. While the findings of this study suggest that non-metropolitan students underperform their metropolitan counterparts in senior sciences, they suggest the gap in performance is not dramatic. More promising, the variation in school performance revealed in this study suggests that non-metropolitan schools can achieve just as well as metropolitan schools in the sciences. The study also suggests location has a moderating effect on SES not noted in the current literature, where science achievement in non-metropolitan schools appears less impacted upon by SES than similar schools in urban environments. This provides impetus for further research into high science performing non-metropolitan schools as a step towards addressing some of the equity concerns in science education.

Low-socioeconomic Status Students Organizing around Class on Campus

While scholars have developed stronger understandings of challenges facing low-socioeconomic status (SES) students, there has been very little examination of students’ advocacy on their own behalves. The last 10 years have seen a substantial and rapid increase in low-SES students organizing campus groups to provide safe space, activism, and/or education around class inequality at selective and highly selective colleges and universities. By utilizing literature on other student activist movements, I make two contributions. First, I extend the existing work on student activism to include a contemporary and growing movement around socioeconomic inequality that is—unlike many previous campus movements—largely operating independently of a broader, noncampus social movement. Second, I detail the challenges students face in seeking changes on their own campuses, which I argue are both specific to their roles as activists and also exacerbated, in many cases, by their positions as low-SES students. These findings, therefore, help to further illuminate the ways that socioeconomic inequality is maintained on college campuses over time and also to highlight a growing campus-based social movement.

What are We Talking About When We Talk About Holistic Review? Selective College Admissions and its Effects on Low-SES Students

ABSTRACTThis mixed-methods study used open-response survey data, focus groups, and an experimental simulation to explore how 311 admissions officers defined and used concepts of holistic review in selective college admissions. We found that 3 distinct definitions of holistic review predominate in the field: whole file, whole person, and whole context. We explored these concepts qualitatively and used the coded data to predict decision making in an experimental simulation. We found that admissions officers with a “whole context” view of holistic review were disproportionately likely to admit a low socioeconomic-status applicant in our simulation. Inconsistent definitions of a core admissions concept make it more difficult for the public to comprehend the “black box” of college admissions, and a more consistently contextualized view of holistic review may also have real-world implications for the representation of low-income students at selective colleges.

The moderating role of socioeconomic status on motivation of adolescents’ foreign language learning strategy use

Previous research has amply established the link between motivation and learning strategy with regards to language learning. However, there have been few investigations into the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in second or foreign language learning. Using questionnaire data on an 8th grade cohort (N = 203, female = 110) from a large urban community in South Korea, we investigated SES as a moderator of the relationship between motivational orientation and language learning strategy use among adolescent students. A series of hierarchical linear models provided empirical evidence that, when drawing only on intrinsic motivation, low-SES adolescents tended to make relatively high use of social strategies. High-SES students, on the other hand, generally showed higher levels of effort, mastery goal orientation, and internal control, and they made greater use of cognitive, metacognitive, compensatory, and social strategies. These findings suggest that an adolescent's SES does affect the relationship between motivation and the use of various language learning strategies; they also suggest the need for greater fostering of low-SES students who are learning foreign languages.

In Class, Sharing Class: Faculty Members from Low-Socioeconomic Status Backgrounds and Status Visibility

Low-Socioeconomic status (low-SES) faculty members might be well-positioned to support lowSES students. However, research suggests that there are a number of hurdles to faculty members playing such a role. In this paper, we examine low-SES background faculty members’ selfdescribed levels of support for their low-SES students, including the likelihood and means of support, how they assess which students might need support, and their reservations about engaging in this work. We show that low-SES faculty members report supporting their low-SES students, most often through direct discussions of experiences that may be shared in common and drawing on their own memories of college experiences.