E

Fellow Index: 

Search by last name:

Leslie Echols
UCLA/education

Dissertation Fellow, 2012

Taking a Closer Look at Academic Tracking: New Measures, New Questions, and New Implications for Ethnic Minority Youth

Abstract: With the achievement gap steadily increasing as children move from elementary to secondary education and contributing to the underrepresentation of minority students in higher education, there is a critical need to understand early school influences on ethnic minority youth that lead to later academic success. My dissertation proposes that the pathway to higher education for ethnic minority youth is largely influenced by academic tracking beginning in middle school. Using a segregation index along with an academic tracking index created for this study, my dissertation employs quantitative data analysis to (1) examine tracking in the context of school influences on ethnic minority youth and (2) predict the academic adjustment of ethnic minority students in middle school. I hypothesize that tracking influences academic outcomes directly by limiting the academic preparation minority students receive and indirectly by restricting associations with cross-ethnic peers who may offer unique types of social and academic support.

Evellyn Elizondo
UC Santa Cruz/psychology

Fellow, 2001

Title: Factors Influencing the College Decision-Making Process of High School Youth

For some students the decision to go to college is a clear and relatively easy choice to make while for others, the opposite is true. In particular, students who have family members that have gone on to college are often seen as having a "college-bound identity," and are better informed, prepared, and guided in their college decision making than students with no family college history. This study seeks to learn more about the processes by which advantaged and disadvantaged students decide to attend college. The information gained will help researchers better understand students' core beliefs about college and more systematically probe college-bound identity as an important dimension of college decision making.

Roberta Espinoza
UC Berkeley/sociology

Dissertation Fellow, 2006

Dissertation: Educational Pivotal Moments: Overcoming Class and Ethnic Disadvantage in Women’s Access to Higher Education.

Abstract: This study examines the ways in which Latina, African American, and White female doctoral candidates organize their social support networks in graduate school, with an emphasis on the importance of “pivotal moments.” Pivotal moments are times when students first have access to educational social capital via an intensive academic social support network that launches them in a trajectory of educational advancement. Drawing from 50 open-ended interviews and using a social capital theoretical perspective, this study explores the timing of pivotal moments in predicting educational success in higher education. The data indicate that women who experience ‘early’ pivotal moments have broader support networks, more fellowships, grants, and conference presentations while women who experience ‘late’ pivotal moments have small support networks, fewer fellowships, grants, and conference presentations. Thus, pivotal moments have important policy implications for minority women’s access to and success in higher education.
Click here to download the full proposal (PDF 1MB)