Recent efforts to understand aggregate student loan debt have shifted the focus away from undergraduate borrowing and toward dramatically rising debt among graduate and professional students. We suggest educational debt plays a key role in social stratification by either deterring bachelor's degree holders from disadvantaged and underrepresented…

In 2004 and 2005, the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education (Pell Institute), sponsored by the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE), published two editions of "Indicators of Opportunity in Higher Education." In 2015, the commitment to documenting trends in higher education equity was renewed by publishing…

The purposes of this equity indicators project are to: (1) report the status of higher education equity in the United States and identify changes over time in measures of equity; (2) identify policies and practices that promote and hinder progress; and (3) illustrate the need for increased support of policies, programs, and practices that not only…

This report, the sixth in this series, brings together again in partnership the Pell Institute with the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy of the University of Pennsylvania (PennAHEAD). These reports draw from multiple sources of existing data to provide, in one place, indicators that describe trends in equity in postsecondary enrollment,…

The purposes of this equity indicators project are to: (1) report the status of higher education equity in the United States and identify changes over time in measures of equity; (2) identify policies and practices that promote and hinder progress; and (3) illustrate the need for increased support of policies, programs, and practices that not only…

The purposes of this publication are: (1) to report the status of higher education equity in the United States and to identify changes over time in measures of equity; and (2) to identify policies and practices that promote and hinder progress; and to illustrate the need for increased support of policies, programs and practices that not only…

In contrast to findings of the 1970s that much poverty was episodic, data from an income panel study indicate that the incidence of chronic poverty increased after 1973 and accelerated in the early 1980s. Trends were sharper among African Americans and women than among whites and men. Contains 30 references. (Author/SV)

Analyzes male occupational stratification for 35 ethnic populations, defined by race and national origins. While racial and Spanish-origin minorities had average occupational statuses far below that of White males of native parentage, most European ethnics were equal to or only slightly below the majority population in 1940 and 1950. (AF)

This paper presents an overview of the socioeconomic status and advancement of the Hispanic population in the United States. The study uses both socioeconomic indicators and noneconomic measures to assess the level of Hispanic assimilation, and analyzes the influence of subgroup affiliation, place of birth, and length of time since immigration on…

Reanalysis of a standard set of data for 16 nations has brought new insights into the leading issues of comparative social mobility. The reanalysis provides considerable support for the Featherman-Jones-Hauser hypothesis, which claims that there is convergence in mobility processes once conditions of occupational supply and demand are controlled.…

This report examines the extent and process by which rural origins may affect socioeconomic attainments in adulthood and how these "costs" have changed during this century. Introductory sections review research and theories of rural differentiation and stratification and the history of major federal policy initiatives for rural…

Adult participation in learning in the United Kingdom in 2002 was examined in a survey of a representative sample of 4,896 adults who were selected using a random location sampling method that involved dividing the study area into 600 areas of equal proportion. The findings from the 2002 survey were compared with those of surveys conducted in 1996…

Although status attainment research has largely ignored the existence and importance of any situs (i.e., non-hierarchical) dimension, recognizing situs may help clarify the nature of occupational differentiation, recruitment, and mobility within a specific industrial sector. The agriculture sector of the U.S. economy, for example, can be…