Access, Outcomes, and Social Mobility in a Stratified System of Postsecondary Education
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| Title: | Access, Outcomes, and Social Mobility in a Stratified System of Postsecondary Education |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Thompson, Jason |
| Source: | ProQuest LLC. 2017Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University. |
| Availability: | ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Tel: 800-521-0600; Web site: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml |
| Peer Reviewed: | N |
| Page Count: | 216 |
| Publication Date: | 2017 |
| Document Type: | Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations |
| Education Level: | Postsecondary Education |
| Descriptors: | Postsecondary Education, Selective Admission, Social Stratification, Social Mobility, College Graduates, Family Characteristics, Access to Education, Equal Education, Socioeconomic Influences, Role of Education, Longitudinal Studies, National Surveys, Generational Differences, Family Income, Wages, Student Employment, Parents, Siblings, Educational Attainment, Correlation, Probability, Computation, Disproportionate Representation |
| Assessment and Survey Identifiers: | National Longitudinal Survey of Youth |
| Abstract: | Educational attainment sits at the core of research on social stratification in the United States. An extensive literature details the inequalities in access to levels of education, the socioeconomic rewards conferred upon those reaching higher levels of schooling, and the prospects for social mobility among those able to attain a college degree. More recently, research on educational inequality has taken into account the increasing horizontal stratification within higher education, noting differentiation among four-year colleges in terms of institutional characteristics and admissions selection criteria. This dissertation examines the role of postsecondary institutional selectivity in social stratification in the United States by analyzing patterns of intergenerational social mobility among graduates of colleges that vary in admissions selectivity, assessing the effect of family background in access to selective four-year colleges, and estimating the socioeconomic returns to attending four-year colleges across the spectrum of admissions selectivity. The first chapter revisits the role of a college degree as "the great equalizer." In doing so, I deploy data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) to estimate the intergenerational associations in socioeconomic status (SES) among graduates from non-selective, less selective, and selective four-year colleges. Intergenerational social mobility varies by measure of SES and tier of degree selectivity. With one exception, parent-child associations in SES are not statistically significant among graduates from colleges in the middle tier of institutional selectivity. In contrast, the associations between parental income and child's hourly wages, family income, and family net worth are statistically significant among graduates of selective institutions and there is mixed evidence of these associations among graduates of the least-selective four-year schools. The finding of intergenerational associations in SES among graduates of selective institutions motivates the second and third empirical chapters of this dissertation. In Chapter 2, I deploy data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) on siblings born between 1955 and 1984 to examine the global effect of family background on educational attainment. Using multi-level models, I calculate intra-class correlation coefficients for groups of siblings from contiguous birth cohorts to show that sibling correlations in years of education increased in the second half of the twentieth century. Additionally, I calculate the joint probability of two siblings within a family both attaining a particular level of education and attending a selective college. Findings show that families of higher SES hold an advantage in securing higher levels of education for their children in comparison with families of lower SES. Furthermore, pairs of siblings from advantaged backgrounds hold a greater likelihood of both accessing a selective college education. In the final empirical chapter, I take an instrumental variables approach in estimating the causal returns to attending a selective institution. These estimates build upon prior findings in a few key manners. First, the breadth of data available in the NLSY79 permits the analysis of total family income and total family wealth, in addition to hourly wages or annual earnings. Also, the most recent waves of the NLSY79 report data on respondents through the age of 45, spanning an age range in which the measurement of SES is least susceptible to error. Findings from this chapter show that, in comparison to attending a less selective college, accessing a selective four-year institution leads to a greater likelihood of completing a bachelor's degree and attaining an advanced degree, higher hourly wages, and greater total family income and family net worth. The three chapters taken as a whole complicate the picture of a college degree as a meritocratic force in the United States. Individuals from advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds are overrepresented in selective four-year colleges and students who attend selective institutions reap greater socioeconomic rewards in adulthood than their counterparts who attend less selective schools. Likewise, greater proportions of students from less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds attend less selective colleges, where the socioeconomic returns are significantly less. This suggests the potential for a degree of status reproduction for the socioeconomically disadvantaged who are unable to access mid- and high-tier colleges and universities. With "college for all," or various derivations of this mantra, reappearing each quadrennial election cycle, research must carefully detail the implications of policy directed toward increasing life chances and social mobility through higher education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.] |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2017 |
| Access URL: | https://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqm&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:10192286 |
| Accession Number: | ED577209 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| FullText | Text: Availability: 0 |
|---|---|
| Header | DbId: eric DbLabel: ERIC An: ED577209 AccessLevel: 3 PubType: Dissertation/ Thesis PubTypeId: dissertation PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
| IllustrationInfo | |
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An extensive literature details the inequalities in access to levels of education, the socioeconomic rewards conferred upon those reaching higher levels of schooling, and the prospects for social mobility among those able to attain a college degree. More recently, research on educational inequality has taken into account the increasing horizontal stratification within higher education, noting differentiation among four-year colleges in terms of institutional characteristics and admissions selection criteria. This dissertation examines the role of postsecondary institutional selectivity in social stratification in the United States by analyzing patterns of intergenerational social mobility among graduates of colleges that vary in admissions selectivity, assessing the effect of family background in access to selective four-year colleges, and estimating the socioeconomic returns to attending four-year colleges across the spectrum of admissions selectivity. The first chapter revisits the role of a college degree as "the great equalizer." In doing so, I deploy data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) to estimate the intergenerational associations in socioeconomic status (SES) among graduates from non-selective, less selective, and selective four-year colleges. Intergenerational social mobility varies by measure of SES and tier of degree selectivity. With one exception, parent-child associations in SES are not statistically significant among graduates from colleges in the middle tier of institutional selectivity. In contrast, the associations between parental income and child's hourly wages, family income, and family net worth are statistically significant among graduates of selective institutions and there is mixed evidence of these associations among graduates of the least-selective four-year schools. The finding of intergenerational associations in SES among graduates of selective institutions motivates the second and third empirical chapters of this dissertation. In Chapter 2, I deploy data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) on siblings born between 1955 and 1984 to examine the global effect of family background on educational attainment. Using multi-level models, I calculate intra-class correlation coefficients for groups of siblings from contiguous birth cohorts to show that sibling correlations in years of education increased in the second half of the twentieth century. Additionally, I calculate the joint probability of two siblings within a family both attaining a particular level of education and attending a selective college. Findings show that families of higher SES hold an advantage in securing higher levels of education for their children in comparison with families of lower SES. Furthermore, pairs of siblings from advantaged backgrounds hold a greater likelihood of both accessing a selective college education. In the final empirical chapter, I take an instrumental variables approach in estimating the causal returns to attending a selective institution. These estimates build upon prior findings in a few key manners. First, the breadth of data available in the NLSY79 permits the analysis of total family income and total family wealth, in addition to hourly wages or annual earnings. Also, the most recent waves of the NLSY79 report data on respondents through the age of 45, spanning an age range in which the measurement of SES is least susceptible to error. Findings from this chapter show that, in comparison to attending a less selective college, accessing a selective four-year institution leads to a greater likelihood of completing a bachelor's degree and attaining an advanced degree, higher hourly wages, and greater total family income and family net worth. The three chapters taken as a whole complicate the picture of a college degree as a meritocratic force in the United States. Individuals from advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds are overrepresented in selective four-year colleges and students who attend selective institutions reap greater socioeconomic rewards in adulthood than their counterparts who attend less selective schools. Likewise, greater proportions of students from less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds attend less selective colleges, where the socioeconomic returns are significantly less. This suggests the potential for a degree of status reproduction for the socioeconomically disadvantaged who are unable to access mid- and high-tier colleges and universities. With "college for all," or various derivations of this mantra, reappearing each quadrennial election cycle, research must carefully detail the implications of policy directed toward increasing life chances and social mobility through higher education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.] – Name: AbstractInfo Label: Abstractor Group: Ab Data: As Provided – Name: DateEntry Label: Entry Date Group: Date Data: 2017 – Name: URL Label: Access URL Group: URL Data: <link linkTarget="URL" linkTerm="https://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqm&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:10192286" linkWindow="_blank">http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqm&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:10192286</link> – Name: AN Label: Accession Number Group: ID Data: ED577209 |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Languages: – Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 216 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Postsecondary Education Type: general – SubjectFull: Selective Admission Type: general – SubjectFull: Social Stratification Type: general – SubjectFull: Social Mobility Type: general – SubjectFull: College Graduates Type: general – SubjectFull: Family Characteristics Type: general – SubjectFull: Access to Education Type: general – SubjectFull: Equal Education Type: general – SubjectFull: Socioeconomic Influences Type: general – SubjectFull: Role of Education Type: general – SubjectFull: Longitudinal Studies Type: general – SubjectFull: National Surveys Type: general – SubjectFull: Generational Differences Type: general – SubjectFull: Family Income Type: general – SubjectFull: Wages Type: general – SubjectFull: Student Employment Type: general – SubjectFull: Parents Type: general – SubjectFull: Siblings Type: general – SubjectFull: Educational Attainment Type: general – SubjectFull: Correlation Type: general – SubjectFull: Probability Type: general – SubjectFull: Computation Type: general – SubjectFull: Disproportionate Representation Type: general – SubjectFull: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Access, Outcomes, and Social Mobility in a Stratified System of Postsecondary Education Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Thompson, Jason IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Type: published Y: 2017 Titles: – TitleFull: ProQuest LLC Type: main |
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