Using data from a spring 2020 survey of nearly 10,000 parents of elementary school parents in one large southeastern public school district, the authors investigate predictors of elementary school student engagement during the initial period of pandemic remote learning. The authors hypothesize that household material and technological resources, school programming and instructional strategies, and family social capital contribute to student engagement in remote learning. The analyses indicate that even after controlling for rich measures of family socioeconomic resources, students with access to high-speed Internet and Internet-enabled devices have higher levels of engagement. Exposure to more diverse socioemotional and academic learning opportunities further predicts higher levels of engagement. In addition, students whose families remained socially connected to other students’ families were more likely to engage online.

It is widely documented that first-generation college students attain bachelor’s degrees at lower rates than their peers. First-generation students also consistently prioritize distance to college in their school decision-making process. How distance impacts their educational performance, however, is an issue that has not received sufficient research attention. This study uses the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/09) to investigate whether the distance between the permanent residence of first-generation students enrolled in four-year degree programs and their attending college impacts their educational attainment and grade point average (GPA). We find that first-generation students who attend colleges at a greater distance from home are more likely to graduate from college with a bachelor’s degree. We do not find strong support for the relationship between distance and a student’s GPA in most years of enrollment. We discuss the way college accessibility reinforces inequality within higher education along with the theoretical implications of our findings.

As US universities attempt to accommodate a growing multicultural society, the task of racially diversifying entering cohorts and retaining a racially diverse student demographic has taken on a leading role in recruitment, college admissions, and campus programming. But, we ask, what definitions of racial diversity are fueling these changes and how have existing racial diversity regimes impacted racial/ethnic hierarchies? We analyze two widespread applications of racial diversity-racial diversity as benefit for all and racial diversity as status marker-to illustrate how racial diversity regimes can be manipulated in ways that undermine the contributions of racially/ethnically minoritized groups and reinforce a racial order that privileges Whiteness-particularly when framed around interest convergence. We conclude by discussing the importance of articulating more concrete racial diversity objectives, addressing structural contributors to racial inequity, and measuring diversity outcomes.

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As organizations that privilege the interests and behaviors of a White middle class, universities institutionalize processes that undermine both the preparation and contributions of students from working-class backgrounds and racial/ethnic minoritized groups such as Hispanics. While studies have documented how universities carry out forms of class or racial exclusion, how racial exclusion is embedded in university class cultural practices is less understood. Understanding how class processes that are linked to racial objectives inhibit Hispanic student development is important not solely due to the group’s growing representation in college but also because such information facilitates an understanding of how universities legitimize racial hierarchies. Drawing on theories of racialized organizations and cultural reproduction, I compare how working-class Hispanic students attending a moderately selective institution and their co-ethnic counterparts attending a less selective, regional university contend with class cultural hierarchies that impact their growth and inclusion. I propose that universities engage in a practice of cultural sidelining. Students are unable to exercise elements of sidelined class cultures depending on the set of behaviors endorsed on campus. Sidelining enables organizations to draw on social class practices to carry out divergent forms of racial exclusion.