Publications
Table of Contents
Wladis, C.W., Fay, M. & Hachey, A.C. (2024). The Holistic Capital Model: Time and Body Capital Sources of Inequity. AERA Open, 10. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584241255626
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We present a model of capital that expands existing models to introduce two new forms of capital (time and body capital) as sources of inequity in education. The aim is to (a) make visible core resources that are relevant to educational outcomes and also (often hidden) sources of inequity, (b) identify commonalities across diverse empirical and theoretical research strands, and (c) reconceptualize existing research from an asset rather than deficit framework. We explain how time and physiological resources can be conceptualized as forms of capital and link this to extant empirical and theoretical research across fields. Then, we describe how students may have different amounts and types of time and body capital, as well as different drains on capital, and how this may lead to educational inequities. We close by describing the affordances of using this theory as a lens for analyzing existing educational structures, policies and practices.
Wladis, C.W., Hachey, A.C. & Conway, K.M. (2024). It’s About Time: The Inequitable Distribution of Time as a Resource for College, by Gender and Race/Ethnicity. Research in Higher Education, 65(7), 1614-1646. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-024-09796-5
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Existing qualitative research in higher education on students’ work and family commitments already suggests that time as a resource for college is likely not distributed equitably by race/ethnicity or gender. However, the relationship between race/ethnicity, gender, and time as a resource for college has yet to be quantitatively measured in large-scale higher education research. This study explored whether gender or race/ethnicity correlated with differences in time as a resource for college; and further, the extent to which differences in time as a resource for college may be explained by other factors such as age, number of children, and access to childcare. Retrospective survey responses (n = 41,579) on self-reported time use were merged with institutional data records from students at the City University of New York (CUNY), a large diverse public university in the U.S. Women, Black, and Hispanic students were all significantly more time poor than male, White, or Asian students. Age accounted for significant portions of these differences, perhaps because it correlates with increased work and family responsibilities. Having children as well as a student’s access to childcare also explained a significant portion of inequitable distributions of time as a resource for college.
Wladis, C., Manly, C. A., Hachey, A. C. & Conway, K. M. (2024). Life Stressors as Predictors of Community College Students’ Course Outcomes: The COVID-19 Pandemic as a Focusing Event. Teachers College Record, 126(6-7), 182-200. https://doi.org/10.1177/01614681241283258
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Wladis, C., Hachey, A.C., Conway, K.M. (2024). It’s about time, Part II: Does time poverty contribute to inequitable college outcomes by gender and race/ethnicity? AERA Open, 10(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584241237971
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This study explores the extent to which college context (two- vs. four-year), gender, and race/ethnicity correlated with worsening course outcomes during emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, by comparing outcomes within students between the fall 2019 pre-pandemic and spring 2020 pandemic terms. In particular, it explores the extent to which prior voluntary online course-taking is related to patterns among these groups. Results from this study suggest that students at two-year colleges, men, and Black and Hispanic students had worse outcomes during emergency remote teaching, if they had not previously voluntarily enrolled in online courses. However, these differential trends were not observed among students who had voluntarily enrolled in online courses prior to the pandemic.
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This study explored the relationships between voluntary online course enrollment (pre-pandemic), time poverty, and college outcomes. Results indicate that students who enrolled in at least one fully online course were significantly more time poor than other students; these differences were largely explained by age, parental status, and paid work. Yet, despite being more time poor, students who enrolled in online courses were more likely to successfully complete their courses, especially after controlling for time poverty. While students who took at least one online course were less likely to be retained in college and accumulated on average fewer credits, outcomes in online courses did not explain these differences; rather, other factors that make students both more likely to enroll online and to drop out or take fewer credits likely play a role. In particular, time poverty fully mediated the relationship between online enrollment and credit accumulation.
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Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning had become a fundamental part of post-secondary education. At the same time, empirical evidence from the last decade documents higher dropout online in comparison to face-to-face courses for some students. Thus, while online learning may provide students access to post-secondary education, concerns about academic momentum and degree attainment dominate the higher education online learning landscape. Because course completion is often used as a measure of effectiveness, there is a strong need for institutions to be able to predict the potential persistence of online students to direct efforts towards ameliorating dropout. Yet currently, a widely tested and validated archetypical predictive model of retention and success does not exist for undergraduate online learning. This integrative review of the literature examines evidence gathered over the last decade, organizing and summarizing major findings, to help identify potential undergraduate student characteristics for inclusion in such a model. The body of literature collected in this review suggests ten factors for consideration.
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Although the majority of college freshmen enroll at community colleges, very few research studies focus on this context. In addition, what research does exist often overlooks important practitioner concerns, such as instruction. In this article we argue that supporting generalizable education research conducted by community college practitioners can address this gap. We seek to start a conversation about the benefits of such research, to both the education research community and to educational practices at community colleges. We draw on findings from a large community college system where this kind of research has been systematically supported for the last 15 years.
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Postsecondary outcomes are significantly worse for student parents even though they earn higher GPA’s on average. This study used institutional records and survey data from a large urban U.S. university to explore whether time poverty explains this trend. The results of regression and KHB decomposition analysis reveal that students with preschool-aged children have a significantly lower quantity and quality of time for college than comparable peers with older or no children, and that time spent on childcare is the primary reason for this difference. Both quantity and quality of time for education had a significant direct effect on college persistence and credit accumulation, even when controlling for other factors. Thus, greater availability of convenient and affordable childcare (e.g. increased on-campus childcare, revised financial aid formulas that include more accurate estimates of childcare costs) would likely lead to better college outcomes for students with young children.
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Research has documented lower retention rates in online versus face-to-face courses. However, little research has focused on the impact of course-level characteristics (e.g. elective versus distributional versus major requirements; difficulty level; STEM status) on online course outcomes. Yet, focusing interventions at the course level versus the student level may be a more economical approach to reducing online attrition. This study used multi-level modeling, and controlled for the effects of both instructor-level and student characteristics, to measure the relationship of course-level characteristics with successful completion of online and face-to-face courses. Elective courses, and to a lesser extent distributional course requirements, were significantly more likely to have a larger gap in successful course completion rates online versus face-to-face, when compared with major course requirements. Upper level courses had better course completion rates overall, but a larger gap in online versus face-to-face course outcomes than lower level courses.
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This study analyzes how ethnicity, gender, and non-traditional student characteristics relate to differential online versus face-to-face outcomes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses at community colleges.
These findings suggest that both women and younger students in STEM courses may need extra support in the online environment. Future research is needed (a) to explore whether factors such as stereotype threat or child care responsibilities affect the outcomes of women in online STEM courses, and (b) to determine which characteristics (e.g., motivation, self-directed learning skills) of older students may make them particularly well suited to the online environment.
Wladis, C., Hachey, A. C., & Conway, K. M. (2015). The representation of minority, female, and non-Traditional STEM majors in the online environment at community colleges: A nationally representative study. Community College Review, 43(1), 89–114. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091552114555904
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Hachey, A. C., Wladis, C., & Conway, K. (2015). Prior online course experience and GPA as predictors of subsequent online STEM course outcomes. The Internet and Higher Education, 25, 11–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2014.10.003
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Wladis, C., Hachey, A. C. and Conway, K., (2014). The Role of Enrollment Choice in Online Education: Course Selection Rationale and Course Difficulty as Factors Affecting Retention. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 18(3). https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v18i3.391
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This study hypothesizes that course passing rates in remedial mathematics classes can be improved through early identification of at-risk students using a department-wide midterm, followed by a mandated set of online intervention assignments incorporating immediate and elaborate feedback for all students identified as at-risk by their midterm score. A sample of over 20,000 students was used to evaluate the intervention, which was implemented department-wide over several semesters in all developmental mathematics courses at a large diverse urban community college. The intervention was assessed by evaluating course passing rates (a proxy for passing rates on standardized exit examinations) and student time spent in the intervention lab. Students from semesters prior to the intervention were used as a control, with fall semesters compared to fall semesters and spring to spring, to control for possible variation in student enrollment. Highly statistically significant differences were found between student passing rates pre- versus post-intervention, with passing rates improving by as much as 50%. The size of this study and the diversity of the student population involved suggests that results are likely widely applicable to other institutions across the country. In particular, the interventions tested were chosen specifically because they can reasonably be implemented even across relatively large and diffuse departments with limited resources.
Wladis, C., Hachey, A. C., & Conway, K. (2013). Are online students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) courses at greater risk of non-success? American Journal of Educational Studies, 6(1). 65-84.
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Both online and STEM courses have been shown to have lower student retention; however, there is little research indicating what effect the online environment may have on retention in STEM courses specifically. This study compares retention rates for online and face-to-face STEM and non-STEM courses to determine if the online environment affects STEM courses differently than non-STEM courses. In addition, different subcategories of STEM courses are compared to see if the effects of the online environment are different for different course subtypes. Each online course is matched with the same course taught face-to-face by the same instructor in the same semester to control for possible confounding effects. This study found that retention rates in STEM courses were more strongly decreased by the online environment than in non-STEM courses. In particular, the course types which had significantly lower retention online were lower level STEM courses taken as electives or distributional requirements.
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Adapting to the 21st century, community colleges are not adding brick and mortar to meet enrollment demands. Instead, they are expanding services through online learning, with at least 61% of all community college students taking online courses today (Pearson, 2011). As online learning is affording alternate pathways to education for students, it is facing difficulty in meeting outcome standards; attrition rates for the past decade have been found to be significantly higher for online courses than face-to-face courses (Carr, 2000; Hachey, Wladis & Conway, 2012a/b; Morris & Finnegan, 2008; Tyler-Smith, 2006). Yet, there is a lack of empirical investigation on community college online attrition, despite the fact that course and institutional management systems today are automatically collecting a wealth of data which are not being utilized but are readily available for study. This article presents a meta-review of one community college’s realization of their underappreciated asset… the use of institutional data to address the dearth of evidence on factors effecting attrition in online learning.
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We consider the Thompson–Stein group F(n1,…,nk), where n1, …, nk∈{2, 3, 4, …} and k∈ℕ. We highlight several differences between the cases k=1 and k>1, including the fact that minimal tree-pair diagram representatives of elements may not be unique when k>1. We establish how to find minimal tree-pair diagram representatives of elements of F(n1,…,nk), and we prove several theorems describing the equivalence of trees and tree-pair diagrams. We introduce a unique normal form for elements of F(n1,…,nk) (with respect to the standard infinite generating set developed by Stein) which provides a solution to the word problem, and we give sharp upper and lower bounds on the metric with respect to the standard finite generating set, showing that, in the case k>1, the metric is not quasi-isometric to the number of leaves or caret in the minimal tree-pair diagram, as is the case when k=1.
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Using registration and transcript data, the authors explored differences in online course enrollment across different student groups. This study revealed that minority students do not enroll in online courses to the same extent as their White student peers, but the effect size for the difference in participation rates was small. However, the actual difference between minority students online vs. face-to-face enrollment was five percentage points, a difference equivalent to about 150 minority students per year, given the College’s current enrollment rates, so the impact of this small difference is not insignificant. An even greater issue is that Black and Hispanic students, regardless of the course delivery medium, continue to have lower G.P.A. s than their White and Asian/Pacific Islander (PI) student peers. This finding reinforces prior research that suggests Black and Hispanic student groups need additional support in order to be successful in college, and that greater recruitment efforts for online courses are needed for all minority groups.
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This case study examines the evolution of online education at a large urban community college. It outlines issues related to course development, administration, student and faculty support. Online course enrollment, student and faculty perceptions and organizational issues were evaluated a decade after online education was introduced at the college. At both the inception of online education and in order to expand successfully, external funding was crucial for program success.
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We show that the inclusion map of the generalized Thompson groups F(ni) is exponentially distorted in the Thompson–Stein groups F(n1,…,nk) for k > 1. One consequence is that F is exponentially distorted in F(n1,…,nk) for k > 1 whenever ni = 2m for some m (whenever no i,m exist such that ni = 2m, there is no obviously “natural” inclusion map of F into F(n1,…,nk)). This is the first known example in which the natural embedding of one of the Thompson-type groups into another is not quasi-isometric. |
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We give criteria for determining the approximate length of elements in any given cyclic subgroup of the Thompson–Stein groups F(n1,…,nk) such that n1 – 1|ni – 1 ∀i ∈ {1,…,k} in terms of the number of leaves in the minimal tree-pair diagram representative. This leads directly to the result that cyclic subgroups are quasi-isometrically embedded in the Thompson–Stein groups. This result also leads to the corollaries that ℤn is also quasi-isometrically embedded in the Thompson–Stein groups for all n ∈ ℕ and that the Thompson–Stein groups have infinite dimensional asymptotic cone.
Wladis, C. (2009). Unusual geodesics in generalizations of Thompson’s group. Illinois Journal of Mathematics, 53(2), 483–514. https://doi.org/10.1215/ijm/1266934789
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We prove that seesaw words exist in Thompson’s group F(N)F(N) for N=2,3,4,…N=2,3,4,… with respect to the standard finite generating set XX. A seesaw word ww with swing kk has only geodesic representatives ending in gkgk or g−kg−k (for given g∈Xg∈X) and at least one geodesic representative of each type. The existence of seesaw words with arbitrarily large swing guarantees that F(N)F(N) is neither synchronously combable nor has a regular language of geodesics. Additionally, we prove that dead ends (or kk-pockets) exist in F(N)F(N) with respect to XX and all have depth 2. A dead end ww is a word for which no geodesic path in the Cayley graph ΓΓ which passes through ww can continue past ww, and the depth of ww is the minimal m∈Nm∈N such that a path of length m+1m+1 exists beginning at ww and leaving B|w|B|w|. We represent elements of F(N)F(N) by tree-pair diagrams so that we can use Fordham’s method for computing word length. This paper generalizes results by Cleary and Taback, who proved the case N=2N=2.
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We prove that Thompson’s group F(n) is not minimally almost convex with respect to the standard finite generating set. A group G with Cayley graph Γ is not minimally almost convex if for arbitrarily large values of m there exist elements g,h ∈ Bm such that dΓ(g,h)=2anddBm (g,h)=2m. (Here Bm is the ball of radius m centered at the identity.) We use tree-pair diagrams to represent elements of F(n) and then use Fordham’s metric to calculate geodesic length of elements of F(n). Cleary and Taback have shown that F(2) is not almost convex and Belk and Bux have shown that F(2) is not minimally almost convex; we generalize these results to show that F(n)is not minimally almost convex for all n ∈{2,3,4,…}.