PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

College education not always about what you have, but how you use it

More black students -- irrespective of class -- enroll for a 4-year degree

2014-08-19
(Press-News.org) Students who have books and computers at home, who take extramural cultural classes, and whose parents give advice and take part in school activities are most likely to enroll for a four-year college degree. Also, more American black students – irrespective of their class or background – will set off on this education path than their white counterparts. So says David Merolla of Wayne State University and Omari Jackson of Colby-Sawyer College in the US, in Springer's journal Race and Social Problems. Merolla and Jackson studied class and race differences in college enrollment, and how it is influenced by the culturally enriching resources available to families.

Data of 8,116 participants from the Educational Longitudinal Study were analyzed. Surveys for this nationally representative study of the 2002 10th grade class in the US were done biennially until 2006. The results show that, after adjusting for differences in family background, black students at any class level are more likely than their white counterparts to attend a four-year university. Black middle-class students take the lead, followed by black middle-income, black low-income and white middle-class students.

Class disparity continues to influence overall enrollment between races. The researchers found that 37.5 percent of white students are from middle-class families, compared to 15.7 percent of blacks. Also, 40.7 percent of white students hail from middle-income backgrounds versus 30.8 percent of blacks. Most black students (53.6 percent) are from low-income backgrounds, compared to just 21.8 percent of whites.

Not surprisingly, middle-class families representing both races possess more cultural resources than others. In all, college enrollment is significantly higher for students from homes where newspapers, books or computers are available. It is also true for students who take extra music or art classes. The odds of college attendance increase with 11.7 percent if parents are involved in school activities and by 28 percent when students receive parental advice. High school students on an academic track are 2.7 times more likely to attend college.

White students tend to have more literacy resources and higher educational aspirations. They go on more day trips and vacations, their teachers rate them as hardworking and well behaved, and they are often on an academic track. Even though black students tend to possess fewer resources, they activate and use cultural resources better. Their families are more involved in school activities such as the Parent Teacher Association, and have more positive school contact. Black students also do extra exam preparations, actively seek information, and receive guidance from parents.

"Black students are less likely to come from middle-class families. However, those families who do have the material resources associated with middle-class status tend to invest in their children's education at similar or higher levels than their white counterparts," says Merolla.

"Policies should help families to obtain access to educational and cultural resources that would help ameliorate educational inequality and promote success for all students," adds Jackson.

INFORMATION: Reference: Merolla, D.M. & Jackson, O. (2014). Understanding Differences in College Enrollment: Race, Class and Cultural Capital, Race and Social Problems. DOI 10.1007/s12552-014-9124-3.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Organic photovoltaic cells of the future

Organic photovoltaic cells of the future
2014-08-19
WASHINGTON D.C., Aug. 19, 2014 – Organic photovoltaic cells -- a type of solar cell that uses polymeric materials to capture sunlight -- show tremendous promise as energy conversion devices, thanks to key attributes such as flexibility and low-cost production. But one giant hurdle holding back organic photovoltaic technologies have been the complexity of their power conversion processes, which involve separate charge formation and transport processes. To maneuver around this problem, a team of researchers in Japan has developed a method to determine the absolute value ...

Love makes sex better for most women

2014-08-19
Love and commitment can make sex physically more satisfying for many women, according to a Penn State Abington sociologist. In a series of interviews, heterosexual women between the ages of 20 and 68 and from a range of backgrounds said that they believed love was necessary for maximum satisfaction in both sexual relationships and marriage. The benefits of being in love with a sexual partner are more than just emotional. Most of the women in the study said that love made sex physically more pleasurable. "Women said that they connected love with sex and that love actually ...

Life on Mars? Implications of a newly discovered mineral-rich structure

Life on Mars? Implications of a newly discovered mineral-rich structure
2014-08-19
New Rochelle, August 19, 2014—A new ovoid structure discovered in the Nakhla Martian meteorite is made of nanocrystalline iron-rich clay, contains a variety of minerals, and shows evidence of undergoing a past shock event from impact, with resulting melting of the permafrost and mixing of surface and subsurface fluids. Based on the results of a broad range of analytical studies to determine the origin of this new structure, scientists present the competing hypotheses for how this ovoid formed, point to the most likely conclusion, and discuss how these findings impact the ...

Women will benefit from the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive coverage

2014-08-19
Women could benefit greatly from the Affordable Care Act's mandate for contraceptive coverage, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. The Affordable Care Act requires private insurance plans -- except those grandfathered or exempted due to employers' religious beliefs -- to provide women with access to all FDA-approved contraceptive methods without cost-sharing. This first-dollar coverage "has the potential to dramatically shift contraceptive use patterns, to reduce the U.S. unintended pregnancy rate ... and to improve the health of women and families," ...

Evolution of marine crocodilians constrained by ocean temperatures

Evolution of marine crocodilians constrained by ocean temperatures
2014-08-19
The ancestors of today's crocodiles colonised the seas during warm phases and became extinct during cold phases, according to a new Anglo-French study which establishes a link between marine crocodilian diversity and the evolution of sea temperature over a period of more than 140 million years. The research, led by Dr Jeremy Martin from the Université de Lyon, France and formerly from the University of Bristol, UK is published this week in Nature Communications. Today, crocodiles are 'cold-blooded' animals that mainly live in fresh waters but two notable exceptions, ...

Electrical engineers take major step toward optical computing

2014-08-19
Edmonton—The invention of fibre optics revolutionized the way we share information, allowing us to transmit data at volumes and speeds we'd only previously dreamed of. Now, electrical engineering researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada are breaking another barrier, designing nano-optical cables small enough to replace the copper wiring on computer chips. This could result in radical increases in computing speeds and reduced energy use by electronic devices. "We're already transmitting data from continent to continent using fibre optics, ...

NASA sees Tropical Storm Karina losing its punch

NASA sees Tropical Storm Karina losing its punch
2014-08-19
Tropical Storm Karina continues to weaken in the Eastern Pacific over open waters, and NASA data shows there's not much punch left in the storm. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite can measure the rate of rainfall from its orbit in space and when it passed over Tropical Storm Karina in the Eastern Pacific it saw an isolated area of heavy rain remaining in the storm. Tropical Storm Karina weakened during the overnight hours and by Tuesday, August 19, maximum sustained winds had decreased to near 60 mph (95 kph). When TRMM passed overhead at 03:04 ...

Secrets of how worms wriggle uncovered

2014-08-19
LIVERPOOL, UK – 19 August 2014: An engineer at the University of Liverpool has found how worms move around, despite not having a brain to communicate with the body. Dr Paolo Paoletti, alongside his colleague at Harvard, Professor L Mahadevan, has developed a mathematical model for earthworms and insect larvae which challenges the traditional view of how these soft bodied animals get around. The most widely accepted model is that of the central pattern generator (CPG) which states that the central brain of these creatures generates rhythmic contraction and extension ...

NASA sees Depression 12-E become Tropical Storm Lowell

NASA sees Depression 12-E become Tropical Storm Lowell
2014-08-19
In less than 24 hours after Tropical Depression 12-E was born in the eastern Pacific Ocean it strengthened into Tropical Storm Lowell. NOAA's GOES-West and NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared images of the massive storm as it continues to strengthen. On August 18 at 21:11 UTC (5:11 p.m. EDT), NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Eastern Pacific and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument gathered infrared data on Lowell's clouds and sea surface temperatures. The AIRS infrared data showed that powerful thunderstorms stretching high into the troposphere ...

Hand gestures improve learning in both signers and speakers

Hand gestures improve learning in both signers and speakers
2014-08-19
Spontaneous gesture can help children learn, whether they use a spoken language or sign language, according to a new report. Previous research by Susan Goldin-Meadow, the Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Psychology, has found that gesture helps children develop their language, learning and cognitive skills. As one of the nation's leading authorities on language learning and gesture, she has also studied how using gesture helps older children improve their mathematical skills. Goldin-Meadow's new study examines how gesturing contributes ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New strategies to enhance chiral optical signals unveiled

Cambridge research uncovers powerful virtual reality treatment for speech anxiety

2025 Gut Microbiota for Health World Summit to spotlight groundbreaking research

International survey finds that support for climate interventions is tied to being hopeful and worried about climate change

Cambridge scientist launches free VR platform that eliminates the fear of public speaking

Open-Source AI matches top proprietary model in solving tough medical cases

Good fences make good neighbors (with carnivores)

NRG Oncology trial supports radiotherapy alone following radical hysterectomy should remain the standard of care for early-stage, intermediate-risk cervical cancer

Introducing our new cohort of AGA Future Leaders

Sharks are dying at alarming rates, mostly due to fishing. Retention bans may help

Engineering excellence: Engineers with ONR ties elected to renowned scientific academy

New CRISPR-based diagnostic test detects pathogens in blood without amplification

Immunotherapy may boost KRAS-targeted therapy in pancreatic cancer

Growing solar: Optimizing agrivoltaic systems for crops and clean energy

Scientists discover how to reactivate cancer’s molecular “kill switch”

YouTube influencers: gaming’s best friend or worst enemy?

uOttawa scientists use light to unlock secret of atoms

NJIT mathematician to help map Earth's last frontier with Navy grant

NASA atmospheric wave-studying mission releases data from first 3,000 orbits

‘Microlightning’ in water droplets may have sparked life on Earth

Smoke from wildland-urban interface fires more deadly than remote wildfires

What’s your body really worth? New AI model reveals your true biological age from 5 drops of blood

Protein accidentally lassos itself, helping explain unusual refolding behavior

With bird flu in raw milk, many in U.S. still do not know risks of consuming it

University of Minnesota research team awarded $3.8 million grant to develop cell therapy to combat Alzheimer’s disease

UConn uncovers new clue on what is leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and ALS

Resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest – it’s how quickly it is done, rather than who does it

A closer look at biomolecular ‘silly putty’

Oxytocin system of breastfeeding affected in mothers with postnatal depression

Liquid metal-enabled synergetic cooling and charging: a leap forward for electric vehicles

[Press-News.org] College education not always about what you have, but how you use it
More black students -- irrespective of class -- enroll for a 4-year degree