Disadvantaged

About: Disadvantaged is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 17050 publications have been published within this topic receiving 337157 citations. The topic is also known as: disadvantaged person.

An Overview of American Higher Education

Abstract: This overview of postsecondary education in the United States reviews the dramatic changes over the past fifty years in the students who go to college, the institutions that produce higher education, and the ways it is financed The article, by Sandy Baum, Charles Kurose, and Michael McPherson, creates the context for the articles that follow on timely issues facing the higher education community and policy makers The authors begin by observing that even the meaning of college has changed The term that once referred primarily to a four-year period of academic study now applies to virtually any postsecondary study—academic or occupational, public or private, two-year or four-year—that can result in a certificate or degree They survey the factors underlying the expansion of postsecondary school enrollments; the substantial increases in female, minority, disadvantaged, and older students; the development of public community colleges; and the rise of for-profit colleges They discuss the changing ways in which federal and state governments help students and schools defray the costs of higher education as well as more recent budget tensions that are now reducing state support to public colleges And they review the forces that have contributed to the costs of producing higher education and thus rising tuitions The authors also cite evidence on broad measures of college persistence and outcomes, including low completion rates at community and for-profit colleges, the increasing need for remedial education for poorly prepared high school students, and a growing gap between the earnings of those with a bachelor’s degree and those with less education They disagree with critics who say that investments in higher education, particularly for students at the margin, no longer pay off A sustained investment in effective education at all levels is vital to the nation’s future, they argue But they caution that the American public no longer seems willing to pay more for more students to get more education They therefore urge the higher education community to make every effort to find innovations, including creative uses of information technology, that can hold down costs while producing quality education

TRIO and Upward Bound: History, Programs, and Issues-Past, Present, and Future

Abstract: This article briefly traces the history of the TRIO programs and provides evidence of their effectiveness in closing educational opportunity gaps in U.S. society. It also examines the criteria for participation in TRIO programs, focusing on the evolving definitions of educational disadvantagement relative to TRIO eligibility. In looking at TRIO's Upward Bound program specifically, the article presents a synopsis of over 30 years of research and program evaluations of this initiative, along with recommendations for improving Upward Bound's effectiveness. A HiSTORY OF THE TRIO PROGRAMS In August 1964, in the midst of his administration's "War on Poverty," President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act. This legislation gave rise to the Office of Economic Opportunity and its Special Programs for Students from Disadvantaged Backgrounds or, as they have since become more commonly known, the nation's TRIO programs. As part of this statute, the first TRIO initiative, Upward Bound, came into existence, followed soon thereafter by Talent Search, which was created by the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965. When the HEA was first reauthorized in 1968, it established TRIO's Student Support Services program and transferred all of TRIO from the Office of Economic Opportunity to the Office of Higher Education Programs. When the HEA was reauthorized in 1972, the fourth TRIO program, Educational Opportunity Centers (EOC), was created. The expansion of TRIO's reach and outreach continued in 1976 with the creation of the TRIO Staff and Leadership Training Authority (SLTA). The fifth TRIO program, the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, was created in 1986. Most recently, in 1990, the U.S. Department of Education created the Upward Bound Math/ Science Program, which is administered under the same regulations as other Upward Bound programs. TRIO Participation Criteria According to Wolanin (1996), the reauthorization of the HEA in 1980 was particularly important, politically and philosophically, for the adoption of two key concepts regarding eligibility for participation in TRIO programs. The first of these was consideration of students' status as the first in their families to pursue higher education (first-generation-college students or candidates). The second was consideration of students' prior performance. The first-generation-college criterion was important as a determinant of educational disadvantagement, Wolanin notes, because it shifted TRIO eligibility requirements in a more encompassing direction by looking at the origin and impact of nonfinancial barriers to access and success in postsecondary education. Politically, this new stance empowered TRIO advocates to build a comprehensive coalition in Congress, not just of elected officials whose constituents were poor people but of those whose constituents had been denied opportunities for or otherwise deterred from postsecondary education. Regarding the prior performance criterion, Wolanin maintains that it is "an even more important core concept of TRIO, both philosophically and politically" (p. 1). Philosophically, he contends, this focus means that TRIO programs are not demonstration programs; rather, they are "an integral part of student aid" (p. 1). Politically, Wolanin states, "prior performance has facilitated the development of an extensive cadre of experienced TRIO professionals who have gained a political sophistication and experience that has enabled them to become a nationwide network of people able to protect and expand TRIO" (p. 1). Much controversy has been generated over the past few decades about definitions of educational disadvantagement relative to TRIO program eligibility. The first group to evaluate Upward Bound, the Research Triangle Institute (RTI), was able to circumvent this controversy by selecting a definition that describes these individuals as members of groups that historically have been underrepresented in higher education and that are below national averages on educational indices (Kendrick & Thomas, 1970). …

Factors That Affect The Retention Of Managerial And Specialist Staff: An Exploratory Study Of An Employee Commitment Model

Abstract: A study about the factors affecting the retention of managerial and specialist staff was conducted amongst the 120 highest paid employees of two banks. The response rate was 86%. The study investigated the Veldsman Employee Commitment model. The study also explored whether retention factor differences exist amongst biographical groupings. Various differences were identified between previously disadvantaged individuals (PDIs) and non-PDIs, male and female, service tenure groups and age groups.

The Processes of School Effectiveness

Abstract: The establishment of those factors within schools that are associated with their effectiveness status has been virtually the ‘Holy Grail’ of SER in many countries of the world since the inception of the discipline in the 1970s. In the USA, Edmonds (1979a, 1979b) and others explicitly hoped to discover what it was that some schools possessed-the ‘validity’—to routinely spread into the schools of black and disadvantaged children-the ‘reliability’. In the United Kingdom, part of the reason for the ready acceptance of the SER paradigm across the contemporary political spectrum has been its promise that ‘good practice’ could be discerned, within a system that continues to exhibit considerable variability in school and teacher quality (see Reynolds and Farrell, 1996 for a review of this evidence and Creemers et al. (1996) for empirical data on the United Kingdom).

Teacher Beliefs as Predictors of Adolescents’ Cognitive Engagement and Achievement in Mathematics

Abstract: The authors explored the moderating effect of teachers’ expectancies and general sense of efficacy on the relationship between students’ achievement and their cognitive engagement and achievement 1 year later. They used hierarchical linear modeling with a longitudinal sample of 79 mathematics teachers and their 1,364 secondary school students coming from 33 schools serving disadvantaged communities in Quebec (Canada). Results indicate that teachers’ self-reported beliefs directly influenced student academic experience. However, they did not influence more importantly low-achieving than high-achieving students. Such findings suggest that in schools serving low socioeconomic status students, teachers should be made aware of the role their attitudes can play on students’ cognitive engagement and achievement. Special efforts should also be made to help them develop positive attitudes toward all students.