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Full-Text Articles in Educational Sociology
Clarifying The Social Roots Of The Disproportionate Classification Of Racial Minorities And Males With Learning Disabilities, Dara Shifrer
Clarifying The Social Roots Of The Disproportionate Classification Of Racial Minorities And Males With Learning Disabilities, Dara Shifrer
Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations
The disproportionate placement of racial minorities and males into special education for learning disabilities (LDs) raises concerns that classifications occur inaccurately or inequitably. This study uses data from the Education Longitudinal Survey of 2002 to investigate the social etiology of LD classifications that persist into adolescence. Findings suggest the overclassification of racial minorities is largely consistent with (clinically relevant) differences in educational performance. Classifications may occur inconsistently or subjectively, with clinically irrelevant qualities like school characteristics and linguistic-immigration history independently predictive of disability classification. Finally, classifications may be partially biased, with male overclassification largely unexplained by this study’s measures and …
Unequally Adrift: How Social Class And Institutional Context Shape College Academic Experiences, Mary Scherer
Unequally Adrift: How Social Class And Institutional Context Shape College Academic Experiences, Mary Scherer
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation focuses on how class background and institutional context shape students’ experiences of faculty mentorship, academic success strategies, and the relationship of college values and academic decision-making. In this comparative study, I draw from 68 interviews with working- and upper-middle-class students at a regional and flagship university to identify how institutional variation matters across moderately-selective public universities, the kind where the majority of four-year college students matriculate. Mentorship, often informal, is a resource most easily accessed by students with preexisting cultural capital—specifically, the knowledge that mentoring relationships are available and advantageous, and the skills for cross-status interaction with professors. …