Education Lag Is Measured for Children Raised by One Parent
The more time children spend in single-parent homes, the less education they are likely to obtain, two University of Illinois researchers have concluded.
The study, which appeared in the May issue of Demography magazine, followed to adulthood 2,500 boys and girls who lived in both single-parent and two-parent households during their childhood. About 60 percent of all children will spend at least part of their childhood in one-parent homes, the researchers said.
The study revealed a marked difference between the sexes in the consequences of living with a single parent. Boys, it found, were much more likely to be harmed by the experience than were girls.
The strongest effect was found among white males, who lost an average of one-tenth of a year of education for each year spent with just one parent. Among black males, those who spent an average of eight years in a single-family household completed 0.6 years less school than those who lived in a two-parent family.
Males who spend their preschool years with only one parent are more negatively affected than older children in single-adult homes, the researchers found.
By contrast, the study discovered, white women were not affected educationally by living with a single parent. Comparable black women lost only a slight amount of schooling.
College Board To Begin Study Of College-Admission Issues
The College Board has begun a comprehensive, two-year study of the college-admission process.
The study is designed to provide a broad overview of the way the nation’s 3,000 colleges and universities select their students.
“One motivation is to determine if the system as it now operates is in the public interest,’' said Fred Hargadon, director of the study. Mr. Hargadon is dean of admissions at Princeton University and senior adviser to the president of the board.
The study will also examine what he called the “volatile’’ issues of admissions standards and high undergraduate attrition.
The number of female school superintendents in Texas has tripled over the past three years, according to a study by a Texas A&M University researcher.
Stephen L. Stark, an associate professor at the university’s college of education, attributed the rise to the reform package adopted by the state in 1984. Still only 4 percent of all superintendents, their numbers will continue to grow, he said, because more women are in the administrative pipeline.
