Students from low-income families are underrepresented in higher education, despite the fact that many of them are well qualified to enroll. When low-income students do enroll in college, they tend to be overrepresented in public community colleges and for-profit institutions, or if they attend four-year institutions, tend to attend regional state…

One sees various efforts in developed as well as in developing economies to seek a greater participation of lower-income students in their nation's leading universities. Once lower-income students do enroll in a highly selective institution, what happens to them? How well do they do academically when compared to their more wealthy counterparts?…

Researchers who examine the link between high school achievement and educational outcomes include measures of achievement that conflate high school effects with achievement effects established prior to high school. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study, this article disaggregates achievement into achievement prior to high…

The increases in tuition and fee prices in 2015-16 were, like the increases in the two preceding years, relatively small by historical standards. However, the very low rate of general inflation makes this year's increases in college prices larger in real terms than those of 2014-15 and 2013-14. Significantly, and perhaps counter to public…

Drawing on a qualitative case study and deploying Bourdieu's thinking tools, this article attempts to understand rural students' subjectivities and practices in a Chinese elite university, relating the types and volumes of capital they possessed to the process of position-takings. It contextualises their experiences against the backdrop of the…

Research evidence for the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) has demonstrated that attending high-ability schools has a negative effect on academic self-concept. Utilizing multilevel modeling with the 2003 Program for International Student Assessment database, the present investigation evaluated the generalizability and robustness of the BFLPE…

University admissions tests should predict an applicant's ability to succeed in college, but how should this success be defined and measured? The status quo has been to use 1st-year grade point average (FYGPA) as the key indicator of college success, but a review of documents such as university mission statements reveals that universities expect…

Large literatures have shown important links between the quantity of completed education and health outcomes on one hand and the quality or selectivity of schooling on a host of adult outcomes, such as wages, on the other hand. However, little research attempts to produce evidence of the link between school quality and health. The paper presents…

While many selective and moderately selective schools have attempted to increase the numbers of low-income students and students of color in their student body, few have successfully done so. In this qualitative case study, I examine the efforts of an elite, private, liberal arts school, Amherst College, as it increased the socioeconomic diversity…

New York City's elite public specialized high schools have a long history of offering a rigorous college preparatory education to the City's most academically talented students. Though immensely popular and highly selective, their policy of admitting students on the basis of a single entrance exam has been heavily criticized. Many argue, for…

As a result of massification of higher education and the quest for competitiveness, the Taiwanese government has adopted a series of higher education reforms since the late 1990s. While the low birthrate has become a potential threat, recent developments in higher education policies such as the Program for Developing First-Class Universities and…

Three million students in the United States are classified as gifted, yet little is known about the effectiveness of traditional gifted and talented (G&T) programs. In theory, G&T programs might help high-achieving students because they group them with other high achievers and typically offer specially trained teachers and a more advanced…

Since 2003, Chinese university students have faced a dangerous level of unemployment after graduation. Current trends indicate that the situation is likely to remain at this level for some time. This article argues that it is difficult to generalize that there has been a decline in the competitiveness of all university students in the job market…

Since most states adopted college- and career-readiness standards, about one million new teachers have graduated from teacher preparation programs in the United States. With five years lead time on incorporating new standards into policy and practice, this year the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has expanded its policy analysis to…

Performance indicators and performance-based funding are becoming integral components of higher education (HE) policy around the globe. We explore some of the implications of this type of policy on Norwegian HE. We believe the case will be of significant interest to policy-makers, stakeholders and academics alike, not least because our empirical…