New UCLA, UC research highlights experiences of youth in poverty

College-educated women earn less than men without similar training, students graduate high school unable to pursue college or a career, and more than 65,000 undocumented youths graduate high school each year only to face uncertain educational futures. These are among the findings recently released by a multicampus endeavor spearheaded by the University of California that focuses on low-income youth's access to and completion of college degrees. Much of the research on students and poverty has focused on students as a monolithic group, ignoring the differences in barriers and opportunities across various subcultures. To better understand poor students and why reforms to help them are inadequate, researchers from UCLA, other UC campuses and universities in Arizona, Iowa and New York collaborated on a multidisciplinary special issue of the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR). Coordinated by the UC All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity (UC/ACCORD), experts in public policy, sociology, race and ethnic studies, and education contributed conceptual and empirical articles on various student populations. The issue features work by UC/ACCORD director Daniel Solorzano, a professor of social sciences and comparative education at the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS); Michael Stoll, professor and chair of public policy at the UCLA School of Public Affairs; and Tara Watford, director of research for Pathways to Postsecondary Success at GSE&IS.