Assessing student achievement over multiple years is complicated by students' memberships in shifting upper-level nesting structures. These structures are manifested in (1) annual matriculation to different classrooms and (2) mobility between schools. Failure to model these shifting upper-level nesting structures may bias the inferences…

The article explores the distinct upward social mobility trajectories of six high-achieving Dalit women in government services in Chennai in south India. Their mobility, primarily driven by education, makes them a very 'select' group given the larger relatively abysmal social, educational and occupational inequality of the Dalits as minority caste…

In a context of universalization of Higher Education (HE) and fragmentation of educational trajectories, consolidating a process of educational and social mobility implies, for many students with non-traditional backgrounds, important identity conflicts. Based on 40 qualitative interviews with non-traditional working-class students enrolled in an…

We use administrative panel data from seven states covering nearly 3 million students to document and explore variation in "academic mobility," a term we use to describe the extent to which students' ranks in the distribution of academic performance change during their public schooling careers. On average, we show that student ranks are…

This study examines same-sex siblings' educational mobility using high-quality register data from Norway. The study explores how the educational level of younger siblings varies with the education of parents and firstborn siblings. Younger siblings are generally more likely to attain the same education as the eldest. Even though the distance and…

Science and Engineering education are jewels of higher education. In India, among the pioneers of premium technical institutes, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are structurally designed to deliver global knowledge capital with a state-of-the-art curriculum and rigorous standards. Their capability to positively impact the global scale is…

Educational policies and practices have had a long-standing emphasis of conducting incoming literacy screenings to determine who is at risk for school failure. Response to intervention (RTI) is an intervention program designed to deliver educational resources to students who fall below what is deemed an acceptable level of proficiency as viewed…

While higher education isrich in diversity and rewards, it can be particularly arduousforfirst-generation college students. This paper reportsthe results of a qualitative research study investigating the college experiences, identity development, and issues faced by this student subpopulation that moved from sixth-form and completed the…

Community colleges are a unique part of the American higher education system that promote access and opportunities for many students who might not otherwise attend a college or university. The purpose of this article is to address community colleges in three parts: their historical relevance, their organisational mission and structure and their…

Seventy-five years after the publication of Abraham Maslow's seminal theory on the importance of basic needs (Maslow, 1943), it is now understood that food, housing, and security also matter for college students' learning and success. Sara Goldrick-Rab's (2016) "Paying the Price" cast a spotlight on basic needs insecurity in college,…

More states, school districts and schools are exploring how competency-based pathways can help far more students reach and exceed the knowledge and skills they need to graduate from high school prepared to succeed in college and the workplace. How do competency-based pathways help students do so? In this report are the stories of three students…

Recent research in psychology introduces "grit" as a characteristic observable in successful students (Duckworth, 2016). Popular applications of the grit framework can further the notion of "rugged individualism," placing the onus of achievement upon the individual. This perspective can lead failures to be considered the result…

Concerns about the breadth of the U.S. income distribution and limited intergenerational mobility have led to a focus on educational achievement gaps by socio-economic status (SES). Using intertemporally linked assessments from NAEP, TIMSS, and PISA, we trace the achievement of U.S. student cohorts born between 1954 and 2001. Achievement gaps…

In the past decades, income inequality has risen in most developed countries. There is growing interest among economists in international comparisons of economic and educational mobility. This is aided by the availability of internationally comparable, large-scale data. The present paper aims to make three contributions. First, we introduce the…

International research on the effects of educational regimes on intergenerational mobility suggests that Singapore's education system possesses characteristics that tend to decrease intergenerational mobility. These characteristics include ability-based and school-based streaming, privatization of basic and tertiary education, expansion of…