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This article reviews recent developments in measuring education and skill that need to be taken into account in any new initiative to monitor social mobility. Over the past half-century, patterns of educational participation and attainment have become more heterogeneous, a trend that has been accompanied by increases in assessment and testing practices, and the availability of electronic data sources and other administrative records, including official school transcripts that are generally held indefinitely. This article describes the most promising approaches to measuring education and discusses some of the possible challenges for using the information to study social mobility. Measures of educational concepts fall along at least one of several dimensions: credentials earned, qualities of the schools attended, the amount and nature of curricular exposure, and the development and acquisition of skills. Selected data sources, with an emphasis on school transcripts and administrative records, and their possible uses are described. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]

This article reviews recent developments in measuring education and skill that need to be taken into account in any new initiative to monitor social mobility. Over the past half-century, patterns of educational participation and attainment have become more heterogeneous, a trend that has been accompanied by increases in assessment and testing practices, and the availability of electronic data sources and other administrative records, including official school transcripts that are generally held indefinitely. This article describes the most promising approaches to measuring education and discusses some of the possible challenges for using the information to study social mobility. Measures of educational concepts fall along at least one of several dimensions: credentials earned, qualities of the schools attended, the amount and nature of curricular exposure, and the development and acquisition of skills. Selected data sources, with an emphasis on school transcripts and administrative records, and their possible uses are described.

This study uses information from both teachers and students to explore how the perceptions of each other's investment in the relationship affects the productivity of the relationship. Using the National Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS), I analyze the conditions and academic consequences of students'investment in the relationship with teachers and school. I find that teachers'perceptions that the student puts forth academic effort and students'perceptions that teachers are caring are each weakly associated with mathematics achievement for most students. For students who are judged by their teachers as at risk of dropping out of high school, however, the value for math achievement of having teachers who care is substantial and mitigates against the negative effect of having been judged as at risk. The results suggest that social capital, as defined by a relationship that facilitates action, is especially high for at‐risk students who feel their teachers are interested, expect them to succeed, listen to them, praise their effort, and care.

As one of the fastest-growing segments of the American population, the children of immigrants are poised to reshape the country's political future. The massive rallies for immigration rights in 2006 and the push for the DREAM Act, both heavily supported by immigrant youth, signal the growing political potential of this crucial group. While many studies have explored the political participation of immigrant adults, we know comparatively little about what influences civic participation among the children of immigrants. This book persuasively argues that schools play a central role in integrating immigrant youth into the political system. The volume shows that the choices we make now in our educational system will have major consequences for the country's civic health as the children of immigrants grow and mature as citizens. The authors draw from an impressive range of data, including two large surveys of adolescents in high schools and interviews with teachers and students, to provide an insightful analysis of trends in youth participation in politics. Although the children of both immigrant and native-born parents register and vote at similar rates, the factors associated with this likelihood are very different. While parental educational levels largely explain voting behavior among children of native-born parents, this volume demonstrates that immigrant children's own education, in particular their exposure to social studies, strongly predicts their future political participation. Learning more about civic society and putting effort into these classes may encourage an interest in politics, suggesting that the high school civics curriculum remains highly relevant in an increasingly disconnected society. Interestingly, although their schooling predicts whether children of immigrants will vote, how they identify politically depends more on family and community influences. As budget cuts force school administrators to realign academic priorities, this volume argues that any cutback to social science programs may effectively curtail the political and civic engagement of the next generation of voters. While much of the literature on immigrant assimilation focuses on family and community, this book argues that school - and social science courses in particular - may be central to preparing the leaders of tomorrow. The insights and conclusions presented in this volume are useful in understanding how we can encourage more participation in civic action and improve the functioning of our political system. -- Publisher's website.

Tensions between the demands of the knowledge-based economy and remaining, blue-collar jobs underlie renewed debates about whether schools should emphasize career and technical training or college-preparatory curricula. We add a gendered lens to this issue, given the male-dominated nature of blue-collar jobs and women's greater returns to college. Using the ELS:2002, this study exploits spatial variation in school curricula and jobs to investigate local dynamics that shape gender stratification. Results suggest a link between high school training and jobs in blue-collar communities that structures patterns of gender inequality into early adulthood. Although high school training in blue-collar communities reduced both men's and women's odds of four-year college enrollment, it had gender-divergent labor market consequences. Men in blue-collar communities took more blue-collar courses, had higher rates of blue-collar employment, and earned similar wages relative to otherwise comparable men from non-blue-collar communities. Women were less likely to work and to be employed in professional occupations, and they suffered severe wage penalties relative to their male peers and women from non-blue-collar communities. These relationships were due partly to high schools in blue-collar communities offering more blue-collar and fewer advanced college-preparatory courses. This curricular tradeoff may benefit men, but it appears to disadvantage women.

Objectives. Immigrant adolescents' academic achievement is crucial to our future economic stability, and Mexican‐origin linguistic minority youth in U.S. schools generally demonstrate lower levels of achievement. English as a Second Language (ESL) programs provide an institutional response to these students' needs, the effect of which may vary by the proportion of immigrant students in the school.Measures. Using propensity score matching and data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study (AHAA) and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we estimate the effect of ESL placement on Mexican‐origin achievement for first‐, second‐, and third‐generation adolescents separately in schools with many and few immigrant students.Results. The estimated effect of ESL placement varies by both immigrant concentration in the school and by students' generational status.Conclusions. We find that ESL enrollment may be protective for second‐generation Mexican‐origin adolescents in high immigrant concentration schools, and may prove detrimental for first‐generation adolescents in contexts with few other immigrant students.

Since the 1980s, major U.S. corporations have embraced diversity as a management strategy to increase the number of women in top jobs. Diversity management programs include targeted recruitment, hiring, and promotions policies; mentoring programs; affinity groups; and diversity training. Few of these programs have proven effective in achieving gender diversity in the corporate world, despite their widespread popularity. To explore the reasons for this, the authors investigate the experiences of women scientists in the oil and gas industry who are targeted by these programs. In-depth interviews reveal possible reasons why these programs fail to achieve their intended goals. The authors find that these programs can paradoxically reinforce gender inequality and male dominance in the industry. The authors discuss alternative approaches for addressing gender inequality in work organizations and conclude with implications of their findings for corporate approaches to promoting diversity and for future research.

ObjectivesThis study aims to evaluate the adolescent political socialization processes that predict political participation in young adulthood, and whether these processes are different for children of immigrants compared to white third‐plus‐generation adolescents. We focus on socialization agents based in the family, community, and school.MethodsWe use a nationally representative longitudinal survey of adolescents to evaluate the predictors of three measures of political participation—voter registration, voting, and political party identification—and whether the process leading to political participation varies by immigrant status and race/ethnic group.ResultsWe find that the parental education level of adolescents is not as predictive for many minority children of immigrants compared to white children of native‐born parents for registration. Additionally, the academic rigor of the courses taken in high school has a greater positive estimated effect on the likelihood of registration and party identification for Latino children of immigrants compared to white third‐plus‐generation young adults.ConclusionsThe process of general integration into U.S. society for adolescent children of immigrants may lead to differing pathways to political participation in young adulthood, with certain aspects of their schooling experience having particular importance in developing political participation behaviors.

The timing of a high school transfer may shape students' transitions to college through its (mis)alignment with the structure of the school year. A transfer that occurs during the summer interrupts the four-year high school career, whereas a transfer that occurs midyear disrupts both the four-year high school career and the structure of the school year. Using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS), the investigators find that the penalty suffered after the transfer depends on the degree to which students' high school pathways synchronize with the curricular and extracurricular structure of the school year. Midyear transfer students appear to suffer the greatest postsecondary matriculation penalty. Students who transfer midyear are less likely to attend a four-year college compared with nontransfer and summer transfer students, whereas summer transfer students are less likely to attend a highly selective four-year college compared with their nontransfer counterparts. Curricular and extracurricular disruptions that transfer students experience after their school move explain some, but not all, of the negative associations observed between transferring and the transition to college. Directions for future research and the theoretical and policy implications of the results are discussed.