Fascinating info as always, Mr. Roscoe. Having said that, I notice that all such discussions are limited to the same small number of criteria. I can think of at least 20 additional criteria that may be germane to the discussion but are never mentioned. One example:
I noticed years ago that so many black and latina women were in college that had previously dropped out of school, after bearing two or three kids (often with multiple fathers) they earned GEDs then enrolled in college (where they had to spend at least a semester or two in "remedial classes" before getting up to speed for actual college level work. I doubt that these women had as much of a chance to learn what they needed as someone who went from high school straight to college, and skip motherhood.
Thanks for your comment. I agree that lots of factors impact outcomes. I can't speak for social scientists, but I think they tend to focus on a handful of variables because they've learned which things impact outcomes the most and because good data is available for those things. Researchers like Raj Chetty are starting to look at a broader set of variables. Here's a link to the Opportunity Insights project he leads at Harvard:
Fascinating info as always, Mr. Roscoe. Having said that, I notice that all such discussions are limited to the same small number of criteria. I can think of at least 20 additional criteria that may be germane to the discussion but are never mentioned. One example:
I noticed years ago that so many black and latina women were in college that had previously dropped out of school, after bearing two or three kids (often with multiple fathers) they earned GEDs then enrolled in college (where they had to spend at least a semester or two in "remedial classes" before getting up to speed for actual college level work. I doubt that these women had as much of a chance to learn what they needed as someone who went from high school straight to college, and skip motherhood.
Thanks for your comment. I agree that lots of factors impact outcomes. I can't speak for social scientists, but I think they tend to focus on a handful of variables because they've learned which things impact outcomes the most and because good data is available for those things. Researchers like Raj Chetty are starting to look at a broader set of variables. Here's a link to the Opportunity Insights project he leads at Harvard:
https://opportunityinsights.org/
Here's a Brookings piece that highlights their work on friendship and economic mobility:
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/7-key-takeaways-from-chettys-new-research-on-friendship-and-economic-mobility/