Proportion Of Minority Students Research Articles

The Diversity Discrepancy, Or Why Your Classmates Are More Like You

Summary Diversity has many potential benefits, and increasing diversity in the classroom and the workplace is a high-priority goal for managers and policy-makers. Although there is nearly uniform support for increasing diversity, there is less agreement about how to quantify diversity. This note observes that there is a systematic bias between how diversity is perceived by an individual and the natural measures of population diversity. In particular, most individuals will find themselves among people who are “more like them” than the aggregate statistics indicate. For example, considering racial diversity in the classroom, do you measure diversity as the proportion of minority students in the average class, or the average proportion as experienced by a member of the minority? Using examples from the US Census and the Philadelphia Public Schools we show that these two metrics can be quite different, and we give a general mathematical treatment of this discrepancy.

Ethnic composition and heterogeneity in the classroom: Their measurement and relationship with student outcomes.

This study explores various measures of the ethnic makeup in a classroom and their relationship with student outcomes. We examine whether measures of ethnic diversity are related to achievement (mathematics, reading) and feeling of belonging with one’s peers over and above commonly investigated composition characteristics. Multilevel analyses were based on data from a representative sample of 18,762 elementary school students in 903 classrooms. The proportion of minority students and diversity measures showed negative associations with student outcomes in separate models. Including diversity measures and the proportion of minority students, diversity of minority students mostly lost its significance. However, the results suggest that diversity measures may provide additional information over and above other classroom characteristics for some student outcomes. The various measures of diversity led to comparable results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

Organizational-Level Racioethnic Matching: The case of College Faculty and Students

The current study examined the implications of the degree of organizational-level racioethnic match between employees and customers for organizational outcomes. Specifically, we explored the extent to which racioethnic matching between college-level faculty and students influenced overall student graduation and retention rates three and six years later. In addition, we explored the extent to which the demographic racial profile of students at the college influenced the nature of this relationship. Based on a sample of 285 colleges and universities in the United States, results revealed that racioethnic matching was positively associated with overall student graduation rates. Additionally, there was some evidence that matching had a more positive and significant effect on minority compared to White student graduation rates. Further, effects on graduation (overall, and by student race) and retention rates were moderated by the proportion of minority students at the college or university. Matching generally ...

Issues and Interventions for African American Students with and At-Risk for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: An Introduction to the Special Issue

* In the past two decades, research on minorities in special education has received increasing explicit attention (Vasquez et al., 2011), with much of that work focused on the dis- proportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) youth in special education programs (e.g., Artiles, Kozleski, Trent, Osher, & Ortiz, 2010; Sullivan & Bal, 2013). Although the research for some groups is equivocal (e.g., Hispanic and Native Americans), a persistent and unequivocal finding is the disproportionality of African Americans in high incidence special education, particularly in programs for students with behavior disorders (Bal, Sullivan, & Harper, 2014; Sullivan & Bal, 2013). More specifically, African American males have the highest odds of being identified with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Disproportionate placement in special education is a major concern because (a) place- ments are often questioned due to the sub- jectivity of the process (Harry & Klingner, 2014); (b) students with EBD tend to have the poorest outcomes of all the students in our schools (Artiles et al., 2010); and (c) the stigma and restrictiveness associated with programs for EBD make them placements of last resort, made only if truly warranted (Artiles et al., 2010).As the proportion of minority students continues to grow in the U.S. public schools, issues related to special education and EBD will escalate accordingly. African American children are disproportionately concentrated in high poverty schools, which are characterized by teaching and resource inadequacies as well as pupil underachievement (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2015). Much of the research on special education and minorities has focused on either statistically documenting risk or on identifying contributing risk factors (e.g., Hosp & Reschly, 2004; Osher et al., 2004). Although this research is essential, of equal if not greater importance are discussions and research on how educators can effectively mitigate behavior problems and bring about desired outcomes for all students, regardless of race or background. Skiba et al. (2008) aligned themselves with the work by Klinger et al. (2005), asserting that these programs need to be culturally responsive, which not only improves academic and behavior outcomes but also reduces inequity.As we look at the state of education in the U.S. broadly, and for EBD in particular, we realize that equitable education for culturally and linguistically diverse learners is a protracted, complicated undertaking. This is especially the case for African American students who evidence the most consistent reports of special education disproportionality and corresponding poor school outcomes (Cartledge, Gardner, & Ford, 2011; Harry & Klingner 2014). Similar to Klinger et al. (2005) and Skiba et al. (2008), other authorities have asserted the importance of caring schools, positive studentteacher relationships, increased resources, and culturally relevant competencies for these students (Artiles et al., 2010; Bal, Sullivan, & Harper, 2014; Sullivan & Bal, 2013). Accordingly, this special issue focuses on issues and interventions related to meeting the needs of African American learners with or at risk for EBD.Excessive exclusionary actions are often the precursor for referrals for EBD identification, and African American students and students with EBD have the highest rates of exclusion and discipline disproportionality (Martinez, McMahon, & Treger, 2016; Skiba, Arredondo, & Rausch, 2014). Smolkowski, Girvan, McIntosh, Nese and Horner (this issue) in the article, Vulnerable Decision Points for Disproportionate Office Discipline Referrals: Comparisons of Discipline for African American and White Elementary School Students, analyze public school office discipline referral (ODR) data to study the role of implicit bias in teacher referrals. From a national data source of ODRs, the authors draw observations and implications about the most vulnerable decision points (i. …

Are Student Loan Default Rates Linked to Institutional Capacity?

As more undergraduates have taken out loans to attend college, the number of borrowers who fail to repay their student loans has increased. While previous research has focused on students’ likelihood to default, this study employed institutional cohort default rates (CDRs) as an outcome variable. Using Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, this study investigated the association between institutional effectiveness and CDRs. Coupled with multilevel modeling, the study also observed the effects of state-level factors, such as state appropriation and unemployment, on CDRs. The results showed that institutional characteristics—e.g., proportion of minority students, admission test scores, retention rates, and instructional expenses—are strongly associated with institutional CDRs. This suggests that institutional default rates are mainly a function of the students that institutions enroll, and future studies should include institutional as well as student factors to provide policy makers and researchers with a more comprehensive understanding of institutional CDRs.

Crime and punishment: the role of student body characteristics in schools’ disciplinary behaviours

ABSTRACTDiscretion in schools’ discipline choices can provide an efficient and effective misconduct management structure, but could lead to discipline based on unrelated factors. Consequently, schools’ disciplinary decisions can significantly limit students’ access to education by removing students from familiar learning environments. We investigate schools’ disciplinary decisions for serious misconducts and show that punishments are more severe in schools that do not report misconducts to local law enforcement agencies. Moreover, we show that schools that report fewer misconducts to law enforcement impose more severe punishments when the student body is characterized as having a higher proportion of minority students, lower socioeconomic status students and a higher proportion of students who are below the 15th percentile of standardized test scores. These results suggest that between-school punishment differentials are associated with student body traits.

Does it matter who your schoolmates are? An investigation of the association between school composition, school processes and mathematics achievement in the early years of primary education

Although many studies have focused on the importance of school composition for student achievement, there is still no consensus on whether school composition matters to student achievement, and, if so, why. Therefore, the present study investigates the association between school composition and mathematics achievement at the end of second grade in Flanders. International research points to the initial ability level, SES, ethnicity and sex composition of the school as potential variables in explaining differences in student achievement. Moreover, some researchers suggest that schools ‘react’ to their student body and for that reason we investigated the possible association between school composition and school processes. Data from the SiBO Project have been analyzed using multilevel regression and multilevel mediation analysis. The results showed no direct school composition effects with respect to prior achievement, SES, ethnicity and sex on math achievement. We found two small differential effects, indicating that mean school prior achievement seems to positively affect initially high achievers, and the proportion of minority students in school seems to negatively affect students speaking a non‐European language except for Turkish, Arabic or Berber at home. Furthermore, two small indirect effects were found which suggest that schools with a high mean prior achievement or a high mean SES keep in regular contact with their students' parents and this, in turn, appears to enhance students' math achievement. Overall, our results seem to indicate that school composition in the early years of primary education hardly matters.

Beyond Over-representation: The Problem of Bias in the Inclusion of Minority Group Students in Special Education Programs

The over-representation of ethnic and cultural minorities in Special Education Programs (SEPs) is a problem for education systems whenever objective features in each subject cannot explain this excess. In contrast to what is normally claimed, the problem lies not in over-representation of minorities, but in bias against these groups. In this article, bias is defined as the difference between the probability of being included in a SEP conditioned not only by belonging to an ethnic minority group, but also by the presence or absence of objectively-identifiable problems. The normal procedure for determining over-representation is based on an analysis of the remainder from a logistic model in which the dependent variable is given by an odds ratio. However, over-representation does not necessarily show the presence of bias. In this article, we argue that the presence of bias can be demonstrated using the density of minorities in each district as a predictor of over-representation. In order to determine the presence of bias, this article proposes three methodological changes to the normal procedure for the measurement of over-representation. First, a modification is suggested for the calculation of the traditional odds ratio, taking as the reference group the culturally dominant group, independent of its size in the given district. Second, the criteria for the determination of over-representation are the statistical significance of the difference in the proportion of minority students when compared to the reference group. Finally, the density of minorities is used as a predictor of statistically significant differential placement (SSDP). To illustrate the method, data from The Fall 1994 Elementary and Secondary School Civil Rights Compliance Report (U.S. Department of Education, 1994) is used. Using this data we will describe the pattern of Differential Placement (DP) of ethnic minority students in the disabled programs of Serious Learning Disabilities (SLD) and Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) using the variable of minority density in the district. Results show ethnic minority membership implies a higher chance of being placed in the SEP mentioned below. However, as minority group density increases, this probability also increases to a maximum point. At this point, the probability of minority students being diverted towards a Disabled Program starts to decrease. This inflexion point in the distribution of placement changes according to ethnic minority group and SEP. The innovative feature of this work is the study of the density of minority groups as the main predictor of over-representation in SEPs.

Survey of Doctoral Programs in Personality and Social Psychology, 1992

The size, admissions, support for students, requirements, curriculum content, completion rates, and student placements of 57 doctoral programs in personality and social psychology were surveyed in 1992. Programs offering more financial support were more selective in admissions and had higher completion rates. Larger programs attracted students with higher Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores but placed a smaller proportion of graduates into psychology departments. Programs with higher GRE scores and more placement success had a higher proportion of minority students. Comparisons with a similar survey conducted 6 years earlier showed that there were fewer programs in 1992 but that they offered their students more financial support and placed a higher proportion of graduates in academic or postdoctoral jobs. Programs in 1992 had more requirements but less curricular coverage of the content surveyed. Possible reasons for these changes, how to measure program quality, program types, and directions for future research are discussed.

Use of SOMPA in Identification of Gifted African-American Children

To increase the proportion of elementary minority students identified as gifted, the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA) was employed with minority disadvantaged children in a large urban school district. A group of African-American students in second through fifth grades became eligible for gifted programming when their IQ scores were adjusted using SOMPA procedures. The performance of these SOMPA students on the Ross Test of Higher Cognitive Processes and other measures did not differ from that of a group of African-American gifted students who were identified on the basis of traditional criteria. There were also no significant differences between the groups in Ross subtest scores seven months later. The SOMPA procedures used to identify these gifted students may provide an alternative method to increase the proportion of minority students in gifted programs; particularly in states that use IQ cut-off scores for placement decisions.

Race and Ethnicity in the Teacher Education Curriculum

William Trent presents a series of arguments for his proposal that the importance of race and ethnicity in education should become a primary area of study for the prospective teacher. Trent notes recent research showing that blacks and Hispanics are among those groups least well served by schooling in the United States, yet these groups will constitute an ever-increasing proportion of students. The problem is exacerbated, in Trent's view, by the opposite trend in the proportion of minority students who will be teachers, necessitating new understandings and new approaches for majority-population teachers who will be called on to teach increasing numbers of minority youth.

Recruitment and retention of minority students in a physician assistant program.

The authors report two years of experience in the recruitment and retention of minority physician assistant students and the employment patterns of graduates from one physician assistant program. Recruitment strategies increased the proportion of minority students to 54 percent in the first year of the program and to 44 percent in the second year. The number of years of postsecondary education and clinical experience acquired by the minority students before admission to the program tended to have less impact on their performance in training than did their prior completion of formal academic degree programs and prior level of clinical responsibility. Attrition was higher for the minority students than nonminority students, and the minority students took longer than nonminority students to complete the program. The rates at which the students passed the certifying examination of the National Commission on Certification of Physician's Assistants were comparable for the two groups. Minority graduates tended to practice in areas of health manpower shortage.

Building community-school programs in two cities

With the loss of population and industry, public school systems in Midwestern cities such as Cincinnati and Kansas City now face increasing demands while suffering severe fiscal constraints. Rising educational costs, declining revenues and enrollments, and rising proportions of minority students, along with increased programmatic demands and pressures related to desegregation litigation, conspire to make school systems recaptive to community involvement and assistance. This paper explores the development of three types of community-based groups which show promise of enhancing the democratic governance of the schools, as well as increasing the school system's resource base.

Open Admissions and Equal Access: A Study of Ethnic Groups in the City University of New York

In 1970 the City University of New York (CUNY) adopted a policy which guaranteed admission to every graduate of the city's high schools. Designed to increase the proportion of minority students in the university and to slow the reproduction of social inequality,CUNY's open-admissions policy has been criticized as a threat to academic standards and as an unnecessary expense during periods of economic scarcity. In this article, David Lavin,Richard Alba, and Richard Silberstein argue instead that there has been no definitive evidence of a decline in standards and that the policy has been successful in reducing educational inequality. Basing their conclusions on a detailed study of the first three classes admitted under this policy, the authors examine its effects on the university's ethnic composition and integration at various levels, and on the academic performance of different ethnic groups.

Level and Rate of Desegregation and White Enrollment Decline in a Big City School District

Review of the literature on “white flight” from desegregated schools indicated that recent controversies have been partly resolved through agreement that this is most likely to occur in city districts with high proportions of minority students surrounded by largely white suburbs. Enrollment data from 1956 to 1974 for the Kansas City, Missouri Public Schools were examined to test this hypothesis. The findings were consistent with the conclusion that white enrollment decline tended to accelerate in schools with a relatively high percentage of black students (above about 30%) and/or a recent rapid increase in the percentage of black students.

Theoretical measures of school integration

The linear indices (H3 andφ3) are the most straightforward among the existing measures of integration. They are independent of the assumption that the proportion of minority students in the classroom is the sole determinant of student welfare.