Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper addresses some of the problems with the limited amount of research that exists regarding the relationship between community college enrollment and educational attainment. Special attention is given to the inherent bias toward traditional, four-year college student models. Using NCES's BPS longitudinal data,logistic regression analyses test existing theories on two separate subsamples: four-year college students and community college students. This analyses demonstrate the extent to which existing theories of college departure, or �drop-out,� might apply differently to community college student populations when compared to four-year college students.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The conventional view of participation is that turnout is lowest at the beginning of adult life, rises to a plateau in middle life, and declines as maturity fades into old age (Lipset 1960). This is known as the life cycle theory of political participation, and has been used to explain why older people participate in politics at greater rates than young people. According to this theory, young people do not participate in the electoral process because they have not “settled down” in their communities. Older people are more likely to be married, have children, own their own homes, and be less residentially mobile. _x000d__x000d_Using a dataset that captures both college and non-college youth, I investigate whether the life cycle theory of political participation explains multiple forms of political activity, including voting in the 2008 presidential election, volunteering on a political campaign, making a donation, and contributing to a political blog. The data used is from Harvard University’s Institute of Politics (IOP) and includes questions regarding college and non-college youth’s living arrangements, family responsibilities, and marital status.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper presents preliminary findings from the National Survey of America�s College Students, a literacy assessment administered to over 1,800 graduating students in U.S. colleges and universities. The study provides detailed information about the literacy of America�s college students, examining the relationship between prose, document, and quantitative literacy and key measures of student characteristics and experiences in college. The results reveal that the literacy of college students is higher than the literacy of adults in the nation, but that students struggle most with quantitative literacy. Literacy also varied across students in 2- and 4- year institutions, by race/ethnicity, language background, parents� education, participation in remedial courses, and by two measures of academic and social engagement.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: When culture is invoked to understand the consequences of growing up in disadvantaged neighborhoods, the isolation of ghetto residents from mainstream institutions and mainstream culture is often emphasized. This paper argues that rather than being characterized by the dominance of �oppositional� or �ghetto-specific� cultures, disadvantaged neighborhoods are characterized by cultural heterogeneity: a wide array of competing and conflicting cultural models. These ideas are applied to college goals and college enrollment among adolescents using survey data from Addhealth. Analyses show that disadvantaged neighborhoods exhibit greater heterogeneity in educational goals and that, in more heterogeneous neighborhoods, adolescents� college goals are poorly predictive of their future college enrollment.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The methods for teaching college algebra have been the subject of many research topics, discussions and debates. The reasoning has been that students continue to struggle through college algebra and in particular they struggle in follow-on math classes such as Pre-Calculus or Calculus. The College Algebra Reform Project was instituted to change the way college algebra is presented in text as well as the way that it is taught in the classroom. In this pilot project emphasis is placed upon 1)a refocus of course content; data, functions, and modeling comprise the primary major otp level topics, 2)presenting material and problems from a real world perspective and teaching students to model and solve such problems and 3)in-class group exercises and board work. This paper presents the results of the pilot project for the past year at Savannah State University. The work shows that students benefited from shift in the way the course was taught and gained from the in-class group assignments. Three contemporary college algebra pilot sections have been taught thus far and the number of sections offered will increase to five in the next semester.