Disparities across race, gender, and class are important targets of descriptive research. But rather than only describe disparities, research would ideally inform interventions to close those gaps. The gap-closing estimand quantifies how much a gap (e.g., incomes by race) would close if we intervened to equalize a treatment (e.g., access to…

This chapter acknowledges the historical origins and access points of positional leadership roles on campus. In addition to highlighting barriers for poor and working-class students, the chapter suggests broadening access to leadership learning from the lens of community cultural wealth.

Mexicanos/Chicanos in the United States have historically suffered derision and mistreatment by the mainstream culture because of their use of nonstandard Spanish and English, as well as codeswitching (alternating between two or more languages or language varieties). In the field of education, codeswitching and the use of nonstandard English and…

In this article, we argue that the expectations, experience, and identities of academics may be just as crucial to improving the participation of students from low socio-economic status (SES) as higher education policies, admissions and marketing activities, but are routinely ignored. In particular, we observe that highly relevant, well-informed,…

The place of popular and multifunctional media in the musical life of young people has been addressed in several studies. Music can aid in understanding youth cultures through the identification of musical preferences: inform about new lifestyles, fashions, ways of acting, work as motivation for personal dreams and aspirations, and build…

As a group, low-income, low-socioeconomic status, first-generation and working class students have lower persistence rates and educational attainment than their peers from higher- socioeconomic backgrounds. These gaps in college persistence and degree attainment have endured over the years with no evidence that they are diminishing in time. This…

This paper starts from the propositions that (a) pedagogy is central to the achievement of socially just education and (b) there are existing pedagogical approaches that can contribute to more socially just outcomes. Given the ostensible commitments of the current English Government to reducing educational inequality and to the importance of…

This Evidence Based Education (EBE) request focused on research-supported vocabulary interventions for middle elementary students. Limited vocabulary is an important factor in underachievement of children in disadvantaged homes. Children with larger vocabularies find reading easier, read more widely, and do better in school (Lubliner & Smetana,…

This essay outlines several ways in which educators might better prepare young people of all backgrounds to understand, enter, and eventually act upon the changing economic landscape. The contributors to this article, which presents perspectives on social class and education in the United States, suggest that one might learn some lessons from the…

This paper presents a narrative that explores the author's own life as a woman from a working class background who is now a professor. After situating her work in the small but growing research field about the intersection of social class and academics, the author presents her autobiography by providing a documentary through the three categories…

Ever since George Washington opted for the title of president rather than king, Americans have been uncomfortable with the idea of class distinctions. This article presents an interview with Dr. Janet Galligani Casey regarding the idea of class distinctions. Galligani Casey, who grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Somerville, Massachusetts,…

The achievement gap that exists between Black and White students--even those from similar economic backgrounds--is an ongoing challenge for educators. Although schools receive much of the blame, the gap is more the result of social class characteristics that go beyond even the best schools and teachers. Raising the achievement of lower-class…