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Paul Attewell

Paul Attewell faculty

Research Interests

  • Social Stratification and Inequality
  • Sociology of Education
  • Inequality in Access and Completion in Higher Education

Education

  • Ph.D., in Sociology University of California San Diego
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Professor Paul Attewell is a sociologist whose research focuses on inequality in higher education, especially issues of access and degree completion among economically disadvantaged undergraduates. He has studied middle and high schools and colleges, using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. His most recent book is Data Mining in the Social Sciences (2015) — which he co-authored with David Monaghan, then a GC graduate student. Other recent books include Growing Gaps: Educational Inequality around the World (2010). His book Passing the Torch: Does Higher Education Pay Off Across the Generations? (2009) which he co-authored with David Lavin won the American Education Research Association’s Outstanding Book Award and the Grawemeyer Award in Education.
 
Professor Attewell’s research has examined the reasons behind low degree completion rates in nonselective colleges and includes randomized controlled field experiments in which lower-income undergraduates are encouraged to increase their “academic momentum” in college, using monetary incentives. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation fund his current research, which supports a team of sociology graduate students, as well as involving collaborators in other states.

Professor Attewell completed his undergraduate education in England before moving to the United States where he received his doctorate from the University of California at San Diego. He subsequently taught for several years at the University of California at Santa Cruz and at Stony Brook University in New York before joining the Graduate Center faculty in 1990.

Awards and Grants

  • The US Dept. of Education's Institute for Education Sciences
  • The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • The Ascendium educational philanthropy
  • The Spencer Foundation

Professional Affiliations and Memberships

  • American Sociological Association
  • American Education Research Association

Courses Taught

  • Graduate levels Statistical Methods
  • Data Mining
  • Sociology of Education

Publications

Paul Attewell faculty

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Books

Growing Gaps: Educational Inequality around the World

Growing Gaps: Educational Inequality around the World

by Paul Attewell Distinguished Professor, Urban Education, Distinguished Professor, Sociology, Distinguished Professor, Social Welfare, Distinguished Professor, Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences

 

In Growing Gaps, scholars closely examine the sometimes paradoxical relationship between inequality and education. Across both postindustrial societies and the high-growth economies of the developing world, education has become the central path for upward mobility even as it maintains and exacerbates existing inequalities. When education is privatized, for example, students from families with resources enjoy the benefits of these new institutions while poorer students face intense competition for entry to underfunded public universities and schools. What's more, qualified young workers in ever-increasing supply face class- or race-based inequalities when they attempt to translate their credentials into suitable jobs. Covering almost every continent, Growing Gaps provides an overarching and essential examination of the worldwide race for educational advantage. 

Published November 2010
Oxford University Press, 2010

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Passing the Torch: Does Higher Education for the Disadvantaged Pay Off Across the Generations?

Passing the Torch: Does Higher Education for the Disadvantaged Pay Off Across the Generations?

by Paul Attewell Distinguished Professor, Urban Education, Distinguished Professor, Sociology, Distinguished Professor, Social Welfare, Distinguished Professor, Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences

Many of the policies that broadened access to higher education have come under attack in recent years by critics alleging that schools are admitting unqualified students who are unlikely to benefit from a college education. In Passing the Torch, the authors follow students admitted under the City University of New York's "open admissions" policy, to find out whether widening college access can accelerate social mobility across generations. Comparing the record of the CUNY alumnae to peers nationwide, the authors find that when women from underprivileged backgrounds go to college, their children are more likely to succeed in school and earn college degrees themselves. Their evidence reaffirms the American ideal of upward mobility through education and makes a powerful argument in favor of college for all. David Lavin, professor of educational psychology and sociology, was at the Graduate Center. Thurston Domina and Tania Levey are graduates of the Graduate Center's doctoral program in sociology.

Published April 2007
Russell Sage Foundation, 2007

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Related News

June 9, 2020

How to Stem the Loss of STEM Students

New research by Professor Paul Attewell and alumnus Dirk Witteveen debunks some beliefs and suggests new ways to address inequity in STEM education.