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- Creator:
- Lascher, Edward L.
- Description:
- Much recent scholarship has considered the persistent gap in college completion rates between Latino and non-Latino students. This gap is widely seen as a major American social problem given the well documented community and personal benefits of a baccalaureate degree, and the growing share of society that is Latino in background. Yet while many important findings have been reported, the extant literature suffers from two problems: 1) there is often a lack of clarity about how ethnicity might influence college completion rates; and 2) many studies are not comparative in nature, leading to weak inferences about the impact of ethnicity. I attempt to address both problems in the present critical review of the literature. First, I identify three different types of explanations as to how ethnicity might affect college completion. Second, I identify a number of specific conclusions in each of these areas that can be drawn from the extant literature. In particular, I suggest that the most well supported conclusions pertain to the impact of the average socio-economic status of Latinos relative to non-Latinos. By contrast, arguments about cultural differences (especially pertaining to family relations) and campus climate are provocative but less well supported. Additionally, despite a few claims to the contrary, my review indicates that commonly used college retention models are as applicable to Latino students as non-Latinos. The conclusion to the paper identifies implications for policy and further research.
- Resource Type:
- Text
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Creator:
- Lascher, Edward L., Hussey, Wesley, and Dyck, Joshua J.
- Description:
- Some have argued that the ballot initiative process prevalent in many American states might lower inequality. We contend this is improbable based on what is known about whether expansion of democracy leads to redistribution, the attitudes of citizens, and the characteristics of the initiative process. Nevertheless, the proposition needs testing. We examine three types of evidence. First, we analyze the content and passage of all post-World War II initiatives going to voters in California, a state that makes heavy use of ballot propositions. Second, we model institutional factors influencing differences in inequality at the state-level from 1976–2014 to test the aggregate-level effect of ballot initiatives on income inequality. Third, we use individual level data to evaluate the claim that frequent initiative use makes lower income people happier because it helps to reduce inequality. Our analyses consistently indicate that the ballot initiative process fails to reduce income inequality.
- Resource Type:
- Article
- Identifier:
- 2183-2463
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento