Minority Enrollments at Public Universities of Diverse Selectivity Levels under Different Admission Regimes: The Case of Texas

This study describes how minority enrollment probabilities respond to changes in admission policies from affirmative-action to merit-only programs and then to percentage plans when the demographic composition of the potential pool of applicants is also shifting. It takes advantage of admission policy changes that occurred in the state of Texas with the Hopwood and HB588 decisions and of a unique administrative dataset that includes applications, admissions, and enrollments for three public universities of different selectivity levels. The findings suggest that the elimination of affirmative action and the introduction of the Top 10% plan had differential effects on minority enrollment probabilities as well as on application behavior depending on the selectivity level of the postsecondary institution. In particular, Hopwood is related to shifts in minority enrollments from selective institutions to less selective ones as the cascading hypothesis predicts. And although the Top 10% plan seems to have helped increased minority enrollment probabilities at the selective college as the upgrading hypothesis predicts, once the increases in minority shares among high-school graduates are taken into account, we find that the Top 10% plan can no longer be related to improvements in minority representation at selective universities.

Una aproximación a la agencia policial de la provincia de Buenos Aires : las reconfiguraciones en la Policía Bonaerense desde finales de los años 90 a la actualidad

Esta ponencia presenta los primeros resultados de una indagación exploratoria, de carácter sincrónico y diacrónico, acerca del eslabón policial de la cadena punitiva. Se atiende a las incumbencias, competencias y despliegue de la policía de la provincia de Buenos Aires, dando cuenta de sus cambios/continuidades junto con la emergencia de nuevos cuerpos de "seguridad" durante las últimas dos décadas. Se analizan, en particular, las constantes declaraciones de "emergencia de seguridad" que reafirmarían el poder policial, facultando la proliferación de nuevos cuerpos y efectivos en las calles. Asimismo, habilitarían nuevas modalidades de gobierno de los espacios socio-territoriales, versando en la retórica neoliberal de la "prevención del delito" y la "protección ciudadana".Fil: Rizzon, Fernando. Universidad de Buenos AiresFil: Calcagno, Ornella. Universidad de Buenos AiresFil: Palmucci, Juan Pablo. Universidad de Buenos Aire

Do Student Success Courses Actually Help Community College Students Succeed?

Many first-time college students arrive on campus unprepared to succeed in college. This is especially the case at community colleges, which pursue an “open door” mission of serving all students, regardless of prior educational background. According to a survey of degree-granting institutions by the National Center for Education Statistics (2003), 42 percent of entering first-time students at public two-year colleges in fall 2000 took at least one remedial course (or one “developmental” course; we use these terms interchangeably), compared to 20 percent of entering students at public four-year institutions. Among recent high school graduates who entered higher education through community colleges in the mid-1990s, over 60 percent took at least one remedial course (authors’ calculations based on the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988 [NELS: 88]). Underpreparation is typically viewed in terms of deficiencies in students’ basic academic skills, specifically in those skills integral to the reading, writing, and mathematics subject areas. Community college educators maintain, however, that many entering students are also unprepared in other important ways. It is widely believed that many students have poor study habits and lack clear goals for college and careers. Some experts contend that helping students address these non-academic deficiencies is just as important as helping them acquire basic academic skills through remedial classes, which typically do not address issues such as study skills, goal setting, and the like (Boylan, 2002;Pascarella and Terenzini, 1991)

El pensamiento económico en Argentina: aportes de Camilo Dagum

En el marco de la globalización contemporánea, una manera de conservar la identidad nacional es estudiar el pensamiento económico en la Argentina. A tal fin, el presente ensayo describe aportes selectos del Profesor Camilo Dagum a la teoría económica quién, desde su primer trabajo de investigación en 1949, ha publicado al menos un ensayo por año en revistas argentinas, alemanas, italianas, norteamericanas, mexicanas, francesas o españolas. En ellos ha abarcado diversos temas, sin embargo, existen tres extensas ramas en las cuales ha contribuído para el progreso de la teoría económica: la filosofía de las ciencias económicas, los aspectos teóricos y empíricos de la distribución funcional y personal del ingreso y la estimación monetaria del capital humano. A partir de ello, el propósito del ensayo es presentar cada una de éstas, y verificar la existencia de relaciones entre los mencionados temas

Making the Transition to Four-Year Institutions: Academic Preparation and Transfer

In this study, we examine the role of academic preparation in the transition from community colleges to four-year institutions. We address two specific questions: To what extent do academically unprepared students transfer to four-year institutions? And, can positive experiences in community colleges diminish the role of inadequate academic preparation? The results, which are based on analyses of Florida's unit record data of first-time community college students, indicate that a substantial proportion of students who enter community colleges academically unprepared do indeed transfer to four-year institutions. Moreover, successful completion of intermediate outcomes—such as passing college-level math and writing courses, meeting specific credit thresholds, and earning an associate degree—enhances students' probability of transfer. However, the ability of community colleges to mitigate the negative effects of inadequate academic preparation is limited: successful completion of even the most demanding intermediate outcomes does not alleviate the negative consequences of entering higher education unprepared. The policy implications of these findings are discussed

Institutional Responses to State Merit Aid Programs: The Case of Florida Community Colleges

This study estimates the effects of a state merit aid program on community colleges by using the introduction of the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship program as a natural experiment. It examines the effects of the program in terms of institutional aid, tuition pricing, and as a re-sorting mechanism for high ability students. The results suggest that community colleges do not increase students' charges to capture additional revenues, nor do they substitute state aid for institutional aid. Contrary to what was expected, institutions apparently use the scholarship program as an "ability marker" to provide additional financial aid to high ability students. Although we find no statistical evidence that the community college system is losing high ability students, there is strong support for heterogeneity in the program effect across institutions that depends on measures of the level of competition within each college's educational marketplace

Remediation in the Community College: An Evaluator's Perspective

Remediation is the most common policy designed to prepare students academically and socially during their early stages of college. But despite its profound importance and its significant costs, there is very little rigorous research analyzing its effectiveness. The goal of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for evaluation of remedial education programs. Based on previous literature, we review a list of ingredients for successful interventions, present a number of approaches to remediation that make use of these ingredients, discuss alternative research designs for systematic evaluations, and enumerate basic data requirements

Memoria correspondiente a 1938

Tengo el agrado de dirigirme al señor Presidente para informarlo acerca de las labores cumplidas en esta Facultad durante el año académico de 1938. Ha sido un año de gran actividad en las tareas docentes y en las del gobierno y administración. Además de los trabajos de los cursos teóricos, de los seminarios y cursos prácticos, la incorporación de cuatro cátedras nuevas, la elección de nuevos consejeros, la conmemoración del cincuentenario de la muerte de Sarmiento, la reorganización del archivo de Secretaría y fichero de alumnos, la intensificación de nuestra obra de extensión cultural, y tantos otros asuntos, han exigido del H. Consejo Académico, de los profesores, empleados y estudiantes, una labor intensa, realizada con amor y dedicación, en una acción solidaria con el Decano que subscribe.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

The Effects of Institutional Factors on the Success of Community College Students

Community colleges are the gateway to higher education for many students who would otherwise have limited access to college, particularly those who are from low-income households or are ethnic minorities, first generation college students, or immigrants. Yet only about one-third of all community college students receives any degree or certificate even eight years after initial college enrollment. And credit accumulation and completion rates are even lower for minority and low-income students. Meanwhile, community college student outcomes, as measures of college effectiveness, are of increasing concern for institutional accountability. The Bush administration and many legislators in Congress would like to hold postsecondary institutions to higher standards of accountability, just as they have done with elementary and secondary schools. Institutional reporting requirements to the Department of Education now include data for graduation rates overall and broken out by gender and race/ethnicity. More than half of all states take into account the performance of public colleges when determining higher education appropriations

Differences in the Prevalence of Non-Communicable Disease between Slum Dwellers and the General Population in a Large Urban Area in Brazil.

Residents of urban slums are at greater risk for disease than their non-slum dwelling urban counterparts. We sought to contrast the prevalences of selected non-communicable diseases (NCDs) between Brazilian adults living in a slum and the general population of the same city, by comparing the age and sex-standardized prevalences of selected NCDs from a 2010 survey in Pau da Lima, Salvador Brazil, with a 2010 national population-based telephone survey. NCD prevalences in both populations were similar for hypertension (23.6% (95% CI 20.9⁻26.4) and 22.9% (21.2⁻24.6), respectively) and for dyslipidemia (22.7% (19.8⁻25.5) and 21.5% (19.7⁻23.4)). Slum residents had higher prevalences of diabetes mellitus (10.1% (7.9⁻12.3)) and of overweight/obesity (46.5% (43.1⁻49.9)), compared to 5.2% (4.2⁻6.1) and 40.6% (38.5⁻42.8) of the general population in Salvador. Fourteen percent (14.5% (12.1⁻17.0)) of slum residents smoked cigarettes compared to 8.3% (7.1⁻9.5) of the general population in Salvador. The national telephone survey underestimated the prevalence of diabetes mellitus, overweight/obesity, and smoking in the slum population, likely in part due to differential sampling inside and outside of slums. Further research and targeted policies are needed to mitigate these inequalities, which could have significant economic and social impacts on slum residents and their communities