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1. Sleep disparities in the first month of college: implications for academic achievement

   https://doi.org/10.1093/sleepadvances/zpac041  

   Bermudez, Vanessa N. ; Fearon-Drake, Danielle ; Wheelis, Meaghann ; Cohenour, Michelle ; Suntai, Zainab ; Scullin, Michael K. ( November 2022 , SLEEP Advances)

   We investigated sleep disparities and academic achievement in college.

   Participants were 6,002 first-year college students attending a midsize private university in the southern United States [62.0% female, 18.8% first-generation, 37.4% Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) students]. During the first 3–5 weeks of college, students reported their typical weekday sleep duration, which we classified as short sleep (<7 hours), normal sleep (7–9 hours), or long sleep (>9 hours).

   The odds for short sleep were significantly greater in BIPOC students (95% CI: 1.34–1.66) and female students (95% CI: 1.09–1.35), and the odds for long sleep were greater in BIPOC students (95% CI: 1.38–3.08) and first-generation students (95% CI: 1.04–2.53). In adjusted models, financial burden, employment, stress, STEM academic major, student athlete status, and younger age explained unique variance in sleep duration, fully mediating disparities for females and first-generation students (but only partially mediating disparities for BIPOC students). Short and long sleep predicted worse GPA across students’ first year in college, even after controlling for high school academic index, demographics, and psychosocial variables.

   Higher education should address sleep health early in college to help remove barriers to success and reduce disparities.

    

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2. Arts for Whose Sake? Arts Course-taking and Math Achievement in US High Schools

   https://doi.org/10.1177/07311214221124537  

   Mackin Freeman, Daniel ; Shifrer, Dara ( September 2022 , Sociological Perspectives)

   Math achievement in U.S. high schools is a consistent predictor of educational attainment. While emphasis on raising math achievement continues, school-level interventions often come at the expense of other subjects. Arts courses are particularly at risk of being cut, especially in schools serving lower socioeconomic status youth. Evidence suggests, however, that arts coursework is beneficial to many educational outcomes. We use data on 20,590 adolescents from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to answer two research questions: (1) Does student accumulation of fine arts courses across different topic areas relate positively to math test scores in high school? (2) Does school SES differentiate this potential association? Results indicate that youth attending higher-SES schools take more art courses and taking music courses is related to higher math test scores. However, this benefit only seems to only apply to more socially advantaged student bodies. Results reveal a site of additional educational advantage for already privileged youth.

    

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3. A Metaregression Analysis of the Effects of School Racial and Ethnic Composition on K–12 Reading, Language Arts, and English Outcomes

   https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649220942265  

   Mickelson, Roslyn Arlin ; Bottia, Martha Cecilia ; Larimore, Savannah ( August 2020 , Sociology of Race and Ethnicity)

   Racial and ethnic differences in educational outcomes significantly narrowed during the 1970s and 1980s when K–12 public schools were desegregated. However, when schools resegregated starting roughly in the late 1980s, racial gaps in outcomes widened again. Because of literacy’s pivotal role in learning, the authors investigate if segregation contributes to racial gaps in K–12 reading performance. Drawing upon structural vulnerability and cumulative advantage/disadvantage theories to frame this study, the authors conduct multilevel metaregression analyses of 131 effect sizes from 30 primary studies to investigate if school composition effects contribute to racial gaps in K–12 reading outcomes and if any effects vary in magnitude or direction for students from different racial/ethnic backgrounds or grade levels. The metaregression analyses control for the primary studies’ regression model characteristics and research designs. The results indicate a small, negative, statistically significant relationship between the percentage of a school’s disadvantaged minority enrollment and the mean reading achievement of the students who attend it. The negative association is stronger when segregation is measured by percentage Black and is stronger for high school students. These two findings suggest that the disadvantages of segregated education cumulate as more structurally vulnerable students transition from elementary to secondary school. Additional results suggest that a school’s racial composition effect is not the same as its socioeconomic status composition effect. The two organizational characteristics have distinct, albeit interrelated, influences on reading scores. Together the findings suggest that racially and ethnically segregated schooling both reflects and helps reproduce racial/ethnic inequality in literacy outcomes.

    

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4. Identifying a typology of high schools based on their orientation toward STEM: A latent class analysis of HSLS:09

   https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21534  

   Vaval, Luronne ; Bowers, Alex J. ; Snodgrass Rangel, Virginia ( June 2019 , Science Education)

   The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent that there is a typology of high schools based on their orientation toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), as well as the extent to which school‐level demographic variables and student high school outcomes are associated with subgroup membership in the typology, by analyzing data from a large nationally representative sample of high schools (n = 940) from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) using latent class analysis (LCA). We used a three‐step LCA approach to identify significantly different subgroups of STEM‐oriented high schools, what covariates predict subgroup membership, and how subgroup membership predicts observed distal outcomes. We find that there are four significantly different subgroups of STEM‐oriented high schools based on their principal's perceptions:Abundant(12.3%),Support(23.3%),Bounded(10.1%), andComprehensive(54.3%). In addition, we find that these subgroups are associated with school demographics, such as the percent of students eligible for free and reduced‐price lunch, school locale, and control (public or private). Subgroup membership is also associated with student outcomes, such as postsecondary program enrollment and intent to pursue a STEM degree.

    

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5. Vulnerability and Transformation: The Impact of Student Experiences of Vulnerability on the Development of Capabilities in Higher Education

   Sarah Appelhans, Stewart Thomas ( July 2023 , Human Development & Capability Association Conference)

   In higher education, our students experience a wide range of vulnerabilities, which we define as a lack of physical, social, and emotional security. Vulnerabilities are unevenly distributed and stratified by race, gender, and socioeconomic status. What is the role of vulnerability in facilitating the development and expansion of capabilities, a core mission of higher education in many Western nations? On the one hand, a lack of resources can substantially undermine students’ abilities to learn and integrate new knowledge. On the other hand, vulnerability has been theorized as a catalyst for transformation, a condition of suffering and fragility that engenders change. Operational definitions of vulnerability in higher education need to acknowledge its dual-sided nature and potential to help and harm student growth. In this paper we ask what kinds of vulnerability facilitate and inhibit students’ development of capabilities? To guide our thinking, we analyze the life history interviews of three engineering students attending a liberal arts college in the Northeastern United States: one American student of above-average academic performance (representing the normative case), one immigrant student of color of above-average academic performance, and one immigrant student of color of below-average academic performance. Utilizing qualitative structured coding methods, we coded each interview using Walker’s (2006) capabilities list for higher education contexts. We also inductively coded instances of vulnerability that arose during the interviews, which often overlapped with one or more of Walker’s capabilities, and noted their proximity to other capabilities at that time in their lives. Coding was performed by three members of the research team using consensus coding techniques to reduce individual biases. We suggest that vulnerability acts as a conversion factor, which both enables and inhibits capability development. Vulnerability is often the product of structural factors, which distribute vulnerability unequally by gender, race, social class, and country of origin. However, the valence of vulnerability is mediated by individual agency, through which individuals may experience transformation through reframing vulnerability as personal triumph over adversity. We argue that the capabilities approach offers a better balance between structure and agency than two competing models, shame resilience theory and psychological safety. This study contributes to new ways of conceptualizing and measuring vulnerability and human development at the micro-level in universities. Higher education systems are central to citizens’ capability development, and understanding student vulnerabilities helps such systems respond to rapid societal changes. 

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