This study examines the impact of Illinois Promise, a loan replacement grant for low-income students, on college graduation within five years. A quasi-experimental design using propensity score matching is employed for first-time, full-time students enrolled as freshman from fall, 2007 through fall, 2009. Eligibility criteria are used to construct…

This study examines the association between educational loans and college graduation rates, with a focus on differences by race and ethnicity. Data come from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Results from the event history analyses indicate that educational loans are positively related to college graduation rates, but only up to a…

Academic performance is a primary predictor of college graduation, yet few studies have examined one of the earliest indicators of academic performance--first-semester grade point average (GPA). Given the considerable public and private investment in ensuring access for underrepresented students, a focus on the role of first-semester GPA for these…

We argue that composition scholarship's defenses of language differences in student writing reinforce dominant ideology's spatial framework conceiving language difference as deviation from a norm of sameness. We argue instead for adopting a temporal-spatial framework defining difference as the norm of utterances, and defining languages,…

In "A New World: Redefining the Legacy of Min-Zhan Lu"(JBW 27.2, Fall 2008), Brian Ray revisits the controversy that emerged in the early 1990s in response to critiques of the iconic Mina Shaughnessy made by Min-Zhan Lu. He offers a reading of the debate that focuses on common ground between the two sides through a metaphor of linguistic charity…

This article discusses exchanges between a number of scholars during the 1990s centering on Min-Zhan Lu's controversial essay "Conflict and Struggle: The Enemies or Preconditions of Basic Writing?" In some ways, "Conflict and Struggle" blazed a trail for later work in "hybrid" or "mixed" forms of academic writing while at the same time igniting…

Research indicates that marriage has a large effect on reducing the risk of poverty and is associated with a higher probability of attaining affluence over the life course when compared with nonmarriage. Using data from the American Dream Demonstration (N = 2,364), this study compares savings performances of married and unmarried low-income…

The constitution of "rhetoric and composition" as a discipline is the subject of a long-standing and ongoing debate that grapples with what each of the terms might be said to signify in relation to the other, and why. Given the multiple meanings of rhetoric and composition, as well as the vexed history of institutional relationships…

This study examined the effects of mothers' assets (i.e., home ownership and savings) on their expectations and their children's educational achievement in female-headed households. The study used data from the National Survey of Families and Households, which involved interviews with a national sample of 13,017 respondents (including 3,374 blacks…

Examines the relationship between postsecondary education and retirement economic well-being among white and African American women. Finds that after controlling for demographic characteristics and employment-related variables, both white and African American women with postsecondary education were better off economically and relied less on…

We investigate the effects of post-secondary education on the economic well-being of single parents. The data for this study are from the 1993 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, with a sample of 930 single mothers and 168 single fathers. The results indicate that post-secondary education, particularly a 4-year college degree, improves the economic…

A randomly selected cross-sectional survey was conducted with 880 youth (16 to 24 years) in Nha Trang City to assess relationships between alcohol consumption and sexual behaviors. A timeline followback method was employed. Chi-square, generalized logit modeling and logistic regression analyses were performed. Of the sample, 78.2% male and 56.1%…

Mina Shaughnessy continues to exert powerful influences over Basic Writing practices, discourses and pedagogy thirty-five years after her death: Basic Writing remains in some ways trapped by Shaughnessy's legacy in what Min-Zhan Lu labeled as essentialism, accommodationism and linguistic innocence. High-stakes writing tests, a troubling hallmark…

The authors examined how welfare recipiency is associated with savings outcomes in individual development accounts (IDAs), a structured savings program for low-income people. They investigated whether welfare recipients can save if they are provided with incentives. Data for this study ore from the American Dream Demonstration (ADD), the first…

Intended for teachers of basic writing, this book contains a collection of new and updated essays addressing issues surrounding underprepared writers. It maps errors and expectations for basic writing and develops teaching approaches that will be effective in a social and political world. The book considers concepts such as the possibility of…