David Zarifa

Bio: David Zarifa is an academic researcher from Nipissing University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Human capital & Rural area. The author has an hindex of 12, co-authored 26 publications receiving 419 citations. Previous affiliations of David Zarifa include McMaster University.

Barriers to Differentiation: Applying Organizational Studies to Ontario Higher Education

Abstract: Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities is currently attempting to increase institutional differentiation within that province’s post-secondary education system. We contend that such policies aimed to trigger organizational change are likely to generate unanticipated responses. Using insights from the field of organizational studies, we anticipate four plausible responses from universities to the ministry’s directives: remaining sensitive to their market demand, ceremonial compliance, continued status seeking, and isomorphism. We provide several policy recommendations that might help the ministry overcome these possible barriers to further differentiation. Resume Le ministere de la Formation et des Colleges et Universites de l’Ontario cherche a accroitre la differentiation institutionnelle du systeme d’education postsecondaire ontarien. Nous soutenons que les politiques publiques visant a declencher ce changement organisationnel vont vraisemblablement engendrer des reactions imprevues. Tirant nos connaissances des champs d’etudes organisationnelles, nous anticipons quatre reactions potentielles aux directives du ministere par les universites. Ainsi, les universites peuvent : demeurer receptives aux demandes de leur clientele, entreprendre une conformite superficielle, s’engager dans une recherche perpetuelle d’un statut superieur ou favoriser l’isomorphisme. Nous suggerons plusieurs recommandations de politiques publiques qui peuvent aider le ministere a faire progresser la differentiation en surmontant ces eventuels obstacles.

Effectively Maintaining Inequality in Toronto: Predicting Student Destinations in Ontario Universities

Abstract: L'acces aux universites prestigieuses, les mieux classees et dotees de ressources, quoique peu etudie, represente une dimension additionnelle des inegalites en education au Canada La theorie de l'inegalite maintenue efficacement (IME) soutient que les groupes favorises vont dominer l'acces aux institutions les mieux classees peu importe le palier scolaire Cet article teste cette hypothese en utilisant les donnees uniques de milliers d’eleves du Conseil Scolaire Public de Toronto (TDSB) qui ont ete suivis a partir de la neuvieme annee jusqu’a leur entree dans un etablissement postsecondaire Ces donnees ont ensuite ete associees aux donnees de classement des universites, de leur revenu, de leurs depenses et de leurs fonds de dotation Une serie de modeles statistiques a niveaux multiples indique que l'entree dans la hierarchie universitaire ontarienne tend a refleter les inegalites dans l'acces general aux universites Les femmes, les etudiants d'origine asiatique, et les etudiants issus des quartiers ayant des statuts socio-economiques eleves sont plus susceptibles d'entrer dans les universites les mieux classees et dotees de ressources; tandis que les etudiants qui s'identifient comme Noirs et hommes, sont moins susceptibles d'entrer dans ces institutions Les avantages du statut socio-economique eleve et de l'origine asiatique sont seulement partiellement expliques par les variables academiques comme variables mediatrices Ceci suggere que le statut culturel joue un role dans l’elaboration du choix universitaire, alors que le sexe ainsi que les autres inegalites raciales sont dus en grande partie aux processus du parcours academique Access to highly ranked, prestigious, and well-resourced universities represents an additional yet understudied dimension of educational inequality in Canada The theory of effectively maintained inequality contends that advantaged groups will dominate access to the best-positioned institutions within any credential tier This paper tests this hypothesis using unique data on thousands of Toronto District School Board students that were tracked from Grade 9 to their entry in Ontario postsecondary institutions, and then linked to data on university rankings, incomes, expenditures, and endowments A series of multilevel models shows that entry into Ontario's university hierarchy tends to mirror inequalities in general access to universities Female, Asian-origin, and students from higher socioeconomic neighborhoods are more likely to enter higher ranked and better resourced institutions, while students who self-identify as black and male are less likely to enter such institutions High socioeconomic status and Asian-origin advantages are mediated only partly by academic variables, suggesting that status cultures play a role in shaping their university choices, while gender and other racial inequalities emerge largely through academic processes

What’s Taking You So Long? Examining the Effects of Social Class on Completing a Bachelor’s Degree in Four Years:

Abstract: Despite improved access in expanded postsecondary systems, the great majority of bachelor’s degree graduates are taking considerably longer than the allotted four years to complete their four-year ...

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Abstract: What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

Crossing the Finish Line:: Completing College at America’s Public Universities (Association for Institutional Research, May 30, 2010)

Abstract: Acknowledgments vii Preface xiii Chapter 1. Educational Attainment: Overall Trends, Disparities, and the Public Universities We Study 1 Chapter 2. Bachelor's Degree Attainment on a National Level 20 Chapter 3. Finishing College at Public Universities 32 Chapter 4. Fields of Study, Time-to-Degree, and College Grades 57 Chapter 5. High Schools and "Undermatching" 87 Chapter 6. Test Scores and High School Grades as Predictors 112 Chapter 7. Transfer Students and the Path from Two-Year to Four-Year Colleges 134 Chapter 8. Financial Aid and Pricing on a National Level 149 Chapter 9. Financial Aid at Public Universities 166 Chapter 10. Institutional Selectivity and Institutional Effects 192 Chapter 11. Target Populations 207 Chapter 12. Looking Ahead 223 Appendix A. The Modern Evolution of America's Flagship Universities by Eugene M. Tobin 239 Notes 265 List of Figures 337 List of Tables 347 List of Appendix Tables 349 References 357 Index 377

The worldwide trend to high participation higher education: dynamics of social stratification in inclusive systems

Abstract: Worldwide participation in higher education now includes one-third of the age cohort and is growing at an unprecedented rate. The tendency to rapid growth, leading towards high participation systems (HPS), has spread to most middle-income and some low-income countries. Though expansion of higher education requires threshold development of the state and the middle class, it is primarily powered not by economic growth but by the ambitions of families to advance or maintain social position. However, expansion is mostly not accompanied by more equal social access to elite institutions. The quality of mass higher education is often problematic. Societies vary in the extent of upward social mobility from low-socio-economic-status backgrounds. The paper explores the intersection between stratified social backgrounds and the stratifying structures in HPS. These differentiating structures include public/private distinctions in schooling and higher education, different fields of study, binary systems and tiered hierarchies of institutions, the vertical ‘stretching’ of stratification in competitive HPS, and the unequalising effects of tuition. Larger social inequalities set limits on what education can achieve. Countries with high mobility sustain a consensus about social equality, and value rigorous and autonomous systems of learning, assessment and selection in education.

Completing College: Rethinking Institutional Action

Abstract: (2014). Completing College: Rethinking Institutional Action. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 85, No. 2, pp. 280-282.