College Major Restrictions and Student Stratification. EdWorkingPaper No. 21-502

Autor/inn/en	Bleemer, Zachary; Mehta, Aashish
Institution	Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
Titel	College Major Restrictions and Student Stratification. EdWorkingPaper No. 21-502
Quelle	(2021), (85 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Disproportionate Representation; Minority Group Students; Majors (Students); Educational Attainment; College Students; Academic Degrees; Social Differences; State Universities; Social Stratification; Grade Point Average; Barriers; Educational Policy; Educational History; Student Records; Trend Analysis; College Preparation; Enrollment Trends; Ethnicity; Labor Market; Outcomes of Education; STEM Education; Salary Wage Differentials; California + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Bildungsabschluss; Bildungsgut; Collegestudent; Degree; Degrees; Academic level graduation; Akademischer Grad; Hochschulabschluss; Sozialer Unterschied; Staatliche Universität; Soziale Zusammensetzung; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; History of education; Bildungsgeschichte; Schülerakte; Trendanalyse; Ethnizität; Labour market; Arbeitsmarkt; Lernleistung; Schulerfolg; STEM; Kalifornien
Abstract	Underrepresented minority (URM) college students have been steadily earning degrees in relatively less-lucrative fields of study since the mid-1990s. A decomposition reveals that this widening gap is principally explained by rising stratification at public research universities, many of which increasingly enforce GPA restriction policies that prohibit students with poor introductory grades from declaring popular majors. We investigate these GPA restrictions by constructing a novel 50-year dataset covering four public research universities' student transcripts and employing a staggered difference-in-difference design around the implementation of 29 restrictions. Restricted majors' average URM enrollment share falls by 20 percent, which matches observational patterns and can be explained by URM students' poorer average pre-college academic preparation. Using first-term course enrollments to identify students who intend to earn restricted majors, we find that major restrictions disproportionately lead URM students from their intended major toward less-lucrative fields, driving within-institution ethnic stratification and likely exacerbating labor market disparities. [Financial support for this research was provided by Opportunity Insights. Additional support was provided by UC Humanities Research Institute.] (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Brown University Box 1985, Providence, RI 02912. Tel: 401-863-7990; Fax: 401-863-1290; e-mail: AISR_Info@brown.edu; Web site: http://www.annenberginstitute.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01