Americans in the Lower Class

In a recent post for the Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends, Rich Morin and Seth Motel report that, in 2012, one-third of Americans say that they are in the lower class.  The report is based on data gathered by the Pew Research Center in a survey of 2,508 Americans. The question, “What class do you belong in?” was also asked of Americans in 2008 and 25% of respondents said that they were in the lower class. 

Individuals younger than 30 years (39% in 2012 and 25% in 2008) are increasingly likely to report being in the lower class. The number of Hispanics (40% in 2012 and 30% in 2008) and Whites (31% in 2012 and 23% in 2008) report that they are in the lower class has grown while Blacks have held steady at 33% in both surveys. 

Read more:
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/09/10/a-third-of-americans-now-say-they-are-in-the-lower-classes/
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/author/rmorin/
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/author/smotel/
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/
http://www.pewresearch.org/

Last Call for ICPSR Research Paper Competition Entries

The deadline for the ICPSR Research Paper Competition for undergraduate and graduate students is Thursday, January 31. For prizes, forms, and details, see http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/content/ICPSR/prize/index.html

Integrating Data Analysis into the Community College Curriculum

Join us for a Webinar on November 19

Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/770576698

Join Kathy Rowell, Professor of Sociology at Sinclair Community College, for a discussion of "lessons learned" about integrating data analysis into the community college curriculum.  Kathy has been instrumental in the Integrating Data Analysis (IDA) initiative of the American Sociological Association and the Social Science Data Analysis Network since its inception in the early 1990s.  She will share her favorite resources and sample activities, tips from her own classroom, and briefly address the challenges faced by community college faculty when bringing data into the classroom. Title: Integrating Data Analysis into the Community College Curriculum Date: Monday, November 19, 2012 Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar. System Requirements PC-based attendees Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server Mac®-based attendees Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer

Mobile attendees Required: iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ phone or Android tablet

UPDATE: Webinar on using Quantitative Data in the Classroom today at *1 pm*

On Wednesday, June 27, at *1 pm*, EDT, ICPSR and the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN) will host the third webinar in a series aimed at integrating quantitative data analysis into substantive undergraduate social sciences courses. This webinar will feature Dr. Jill Bouma, Associate Professor of Sociology at Berea College in Berea, KY, and Dr. Dana Greene, Research Fellow, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who will discuss how they challenge their students in lower-division courses to define and describe stratification in the U.S. and the world today.
Participants will learn how Dr. Bouma and Dr. Greene successfully lead their students through the investigation of topics such as income inequality, housing segregation, race, and gender using quantitative data and methods. In addition to promoting a deeper understanding of the content, students taught with these methods improve critical thinking skills and develop a greater appreciation of the social sciences. Viewers will also learn where they can access some of Dr. Bouma and Dr. Greene's teaching materials to adapt for their own use.
Pre-registration is not required. To view the webinar, visit https://www3.gotomeeting.com/join/978777294 a few minutes before *1 p.m.* on Wednesday, June 27.

Webinar on teaching quantitative data analysis to undergraduates set for June 27

On Wednesday, June 27, at 2 pm, EDT, ICPSR and the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN) will host the third webinar in a series aimed at integrating quantitative data analysis into substantive undergraduate social sciences courses. This webinar will feature Dr. Jill Bouma, Associate Professor of Sociology at Berea College in Berea, KY, and Dr. Dana Greene, Research Fellow, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who will discuss how they challenge their students in lower-division courses to define and describe stratification in the U.S. and the world today.


Participants will learn how Dr. Bouma and Dr. Greene successfully lead their students through the investigation of topics such as income inequality, housing segregation, race, and gender using quantitative data and methods. In addition to promoting a deeper understanding of the content, students taught with these methods improve critical thinking skills and develop a greater appreciation of the social sciences. Viewers will also learn where they can access some of Dr. Bouma and Dr. Greene's teaching materials to adapt for their own use.


Pre-registration is not required. To view the webinar, visit https://www3.gotomeeting.com/join/978777294 a few minutes before 2 p.m. on Wednesday, June 27 to join in.

ICPSR announces summer internships

ICPSR is pleased to announce the participants in the 8th year of the ICPSR Summer Internship Program for undergraduates, supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. We received more than 250 applications for the program, and selected six interns:

• Jane Oliphant of the University of Portland (Ore.) will work with Sara Lazaroff of the ICPSR Education Archive
• Jeffrey Berg of Carleton College will work with Doctor Ashe in the Members Archive
• Joshua Goode of the University of Colorado-Denver and Red Rocks Community College will work with Tannaz Sabet in the Data Sharing for Demographic Research archive
• Rosa Rincon of California State University-Northridge and Pasadena City College will work with Justin Noble in the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data
• Thomas Hegland of St. Olaf College will work with Kevin Kapalla in the Members Archive
• Tori Thomas of Georgia State University will work with Abayomi Israel of the Resource Center for Minority Data

The interns will spend 10 weeks at ICPSR in Ann Arbor, and will gain experience processing data and learning statistical software packages; complete a research project resulting in conference-ready posters; and attend courses in the ICPSR Summer Program.

The goal of the program is to promote the effective use of social science research data among undergraduate students, and to encourage participants to pursue a career in the social or behavioral sciences. Abayomi Israel and John Garcia of the Resource Center for Minority Data are the projct managers, and Lynette Hoelter, ICPSR's Director of Instructional Resources, serves as the Co-Principal Investigator.

Videos of last year's interns describing their projects can be viewed on the ICPSR YouTube channel.

More information on the student participants follows:

• Jane Oliphant of the University of Portland is a triple major in Social Work, Psychology, and Sociology graduating in 2013. After graduation, she would like to attend graduate school in the social sciences or Public Policy and possibly pursue a career in research. Jane has experience working with SPSS and has already identified a number of datasets that she would like to work with this summer: the Head Start Family and Child Survey (Faces) Series, the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) Policies Database, and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) 2004 Panel, just to name a few. Since 2010, Jane has served as a Resident Assistant and has worked as the Service and Justice Coordinator at her university. In 2011, she gained experience as a Camp Counselor at the Cascades Camp and Conference Center. Jane is also very active in her campus community where she plays various intramural sports and volunteers in a number of committees. In 2010, Jane worked as a Social Justice Intern at the Macdonald Center - an organization that serves the low-income population in downtown Portland. Jane's most recent research project examined the relationship between self-concept and observer ratings. This summer she would like to focus on the question of how a person's access to resources in their childhood influenced their later life outcomes, more specifically, research that examines inner-generational poverty. 
• Jeffrey Berg of Carleton College is a double major in Political Science/International Relations and Psychology/Cognitive Science graduating in 2014. Jeffery is most interested in the evidential side of social science: specifically, data analysis, and survey design - with the hope to one day pursue a career in research. He has worked as a Research Assistant for his college's Political Science department where his work focused on the nature of political advertisements during the 2008 political campaigns. In addition, during the spring of 2012, Jeffery interned at the National Archives under the supervision of the External Affairs Liaison. Although only a sophomore, Jeffery has already gained experience with SPSS, TIBCO Spotfire, and S-plus. In addition, he has working knowledge in the Python programming language and is fluent in Spanish. Outside of the classroom, Jeffery has served as the General Editor of The Echo Newspaper and Chief Editor of the Literary Journal at Wheaton Academy, and is currently the Photographer and Editor for Media Relations at his college and Ice Hockey Statistician at the Advanced Ice Arenas.
• Joshua Goode of the University of Colorado is a Sociology major and Demography minor graduating in 2013 with an interest in becoming a Sociology professor one day. Specifically, he hope is to pursue a research career in the area of family demography. In 2011, Joshua worked as a Research Assistant for two different professors where he learned about working with both qualitative and quantitative data. In terms of experience with data, Joshua has worked with Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort (ECLSB) data, as well as the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) data from the United Kingdom. His senior thesis on the educational aspirations and expectations of minority youth utilizes the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and he has experience with SPSS, STATA and Mplus. In 2011, Joshua has also given two conference presentations; the first was at the National Council on Family Relations Meeting in Orlando Florida, and the other at the National Center for Family & Marriage Research Counting Couples, Counting Families Conference in Bethesda Maryland. Joshua serves as president of the Students of Sociology Club and vice-president of the Alpha Kappa Delta, the international Sociology honor society.
• Rosa of California State University-Northridge is a junior Sociology and Criminology major with an Associates of Arts Degree in Sociology from Pasadena City College. After graduation she plans to attend graduate school in either Sociology or Criminology with the hope of one of two career trajectories - an analyst in the criminal justice system for city or state government or a Sociology professor at a community college. Rosa has worked with a number of large data sets, including the General Social Survey and the National Longitudinal Surveys, and has experience in SPSS. She has worked as a Youth Leader at the Pasadena Unified School District, and has served as the Community Representative for Puente Club. Rosa is bilingual and uses her fluency in Spanish and English when volunteering as a tutor at the Senior Center and at El Centro de Accion Social. As a first-generation college student, Rosa hopes that the ICPSR Summer Internship will give her greater experience in statistical methods and social research as to prepare her for the next steps in her career.
• Thomas Hegland of St. Olaf College is a double major in Mathematics and Economics with an emphasis on Public Policy and a concentration in Statistics graduating in 2013. After graduation, Thomas plans on pursuing a graduate degree in Economics with the hope of one day becoming an economist. Through his wide range of experiences, Thomas has acquired a wide range of technical skills; this includes experience in the use of the R statistical computing language, Linux/Unix environments, SAS, STATA and EViews. He has also worked with a number of large data sets such as the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). His main research interest is urban poverty as he believes that it is tied to many other questions relating not just to Economics but also to the broader social structure. In addition, some of his academic achievements include studying Number Theory in Hungary in 2011, the Buntrock Academic Scholarship, a publication in the Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Sciences, and a number of presentations including his most recent at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. From 2010 to the present, Thomas has worked as an Undergraduate Research Fellow for the NSF supported Center for Interdisciplinary Research. He also serves as member and coach of the debate team, member of the Math team, class representative for the Mathematical Association of America and the vice president of his college's chapter of Omicron Delta Epsilon, the national Economics honor society. Currently he serves on the Student Government as the Chief Financial Officer of the political Awareness Committee.
• Tori Thomas of Georgia State University is a Sociology major and African American Studies minor graduating in 2013. After graduation, she would like to participate in the Teach for America Program with the ultimate goal of attending graduate school in either Sociology or Education. Tori is a Ronald McNair scholar and has been awarded a number of accolades including the Margaret Andersen Award for outstanding performance in Sociology. In addition, she has received the Georgia Hope scholarship, the Horatio Alger Scholarship and the Next Generation Award Scholarship. Tori has experience in both SPSS and SAS and has worked as a Research Assistant and Intern in the McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program and the NSF/NIH funded Public Housing Study respectively. Through these programs, Tori has developed an interest in studying how relocation out of public housing affected educational opportunities in minority communities. In 2010, Tori also served as the Statistics and Measurement Intern for The Georgia Center for Nonprofits and has continued to be a very active member of her community. She is currently a member of the Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority Incorporated, served as a First Year Mentor and Service Ambassador at her university and is a Junior Achievement Volunteer responsible for teaching financial literacy at elementary and middle schools.

Persistent URL: http://icpsr.blogspot.com/2012/05/icpsr-announces-summer-internships.html

Research paper competition winners announced

ICPSR is pleased to announce the winners of our 2012 Research Paper Competitions.

Quentin Karpilow of Kenyon College won the Undergraduate Competition with his paper "Racial and Ethnic Threats in Pretrial Release Processing." The paper used State Court Processing Statistics, 1990-2006, County Characteristics (2000-2007), 1998 and 2000 Uniform Crime Reports, and the 1999 National Jail Census to examine pretrial release outcomes for adult defendants charged with drug felonies according to their racial or ethnic backgrounds and various community and incarceration settings. Karpilow was a 2011 ICPSR Summer Intern and has earned a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics. This paper was selected as the second-place winner of the 2012 North Central Sociological Association Student Paper Competition for Undergraduates.

Zornitsa Kalibatseva of Michigan State University won the Master's Competition with her paper "A Symptom Profile Analysis of Depression in a Nationally Representative Sample of Asian Americans." The study uses the National Comorbidity Survey to examine the differences in symptoms of depression between Asian Americans and European Americans.

The first-place award in the Resource Center for Minority Data Paper Competition was won by Amanda Mireles of Princeton University for her paper "Cultural Capital Investments: Concerted Cultivation and the Academic Achievement of Hispanic Kindergarten Students." Mireles analyzed data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to measure academic achievement of Hispanic students. She earned a B.A. with High Honors in Sociology, received Certificates of Proficiency in African American Studies and Latino Studies, and is the recipient of the 2011 Isidore Brown Thesis Award for this paper.

Second-place in the RMCD competition went to Danae Ross of Wayne State University for her paper "Black Feminism and Hip Hop: A Cross-Generational Disconnect." The paper used the 1993 National Black Politics Study to investigate the impact of a strong feminist perspective on the likelihood of listening to rap music among black women. Ross is a McNair Scholar, has earned a B.A. with High Honors in English and Sociology, and has been accepted in the Ph.D. program in African Diaspora Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. This paper was selected as the third-place winner for the 2012 North Central Sociological Association Student Paper Competition for Undergraduates.

The first-place winners received $1,000; the second-place prize is $750. All the papers used data from the ICPSR or RCMD archive.

ICPSR is holding three competitions this year:

• The ICPSR Research Paper Competition, for analyses on any topic using data from the ICPSR General Archive or Thematic Collections.
• The IFSS Research Paper Competition, for analyses on any topic using data from the Integrated Fertility Survey Series.
• The RCMD Research Paper Competition, for analyses on issues relating to minorities in the United States, including immigrants, using data from the Resource Center for Minority Data.

All competitions are open to undergraduate and master's students, and recent graduates. See the competition Web site for details. Deadline for submissions is January 31, 2013.

Persistent URL: http://icpsr.blogspot.com/2012/05/research-paper-competition-winners.html