Numbers Of Disadvantaged Students Research Articles

The GSLS Carnegie Scholars: Guests in Someone Else's House

ABSTRACT During the late 1960s and early 1970s the University of Illinois took many risks in an effort to diversify the ranks of their student body. One such initiative was the Carnegie Scholars experiment; thirty minority students were recruited to the Graduate School of Library Science, twenty-nine graduated, and many went on to become leaders in their profession. The experiences of these Scholars, told through archival records, can inform current discussions about the recruitment and care of minority students in library and information science graduate programs, and in higher education in general. The program was described as “an unusual, flawed, but ultimately successful program to increase the number of disadvantaged students, primarily black and Hispanic” in the profession. The program was shortsighted, fraught with miscommunication and low expectations, and a definite product of the racial climate of the time.

Location, timing, and flexibility: Positioning inclusivity in higher education career services

Students from disadvantaged backgrounds have been reported to use university career services in smaller numbers than their peers. In order to address this, services have been advised to “establish ways of identifying, within their first term of study, those students who are particularly likely to need help and guidance from the Careers Service” (Harris, 2001, p. 8). By analysing two career programs—traditional stand-alone career workshops and an alternative service, which incorporates employability skills as part of a service learning program—the inclusivity of career programs and the kinds of students programs attract was explored. It was found that the program that had greater flexibility in terms of location, choice, and timing attracted a statistically significantly larger number of disadvantaged students. It is recommended that services consider contextually and critically analysing programs, systems, and methods of working to ensure that these are not disadvantaging one or more student groups.

School Safety, Severe Disciplinary Actions, and School Characteristics: A Secondary Analysis of the School Survey on Crime and Safety

On the basis of a secondary analysis of survey data collected from 1,872 secondary school principals in the 2005–2006 School Survey on Crime and Safety, we examined the frequency of and reasons for severe disciplinary actions and the relationship between school characteristics and severe disciplinary actions. We found that severe disciplinary actions were frequently taken for insubordinations and physical attacks or fights rather than for weapon-related problems. After controlling for the level of students’ problem behaviors, we found that schools serving a larger number of disadvantaged students (underachievers, special education students, ethnic minority students, and students in poverty) tend to use severe disciplinary actions more frequently than do schools with a smaller number of disadvantaged students. Recommendations for ameliorating this inequality in disciplinary practices are offered.