The Value of Interpersonal Network Continuity for College Students in Disruptive Times.

The COVID-19 pandemic-related social distancing practices that colleges implemented in Spring 2020 disrupted the typical mechanisms of propinquity (physical proximity) and homophily (shared characteristics) that physical institutions rely on to help students build and maintain relationships critical to learning and wellbeing. To explore how social distancing shaped students' academic and social networks and associated educational outcomes, we conceptualized it as a "network shock" and collected unique ego network data in April 2020. For participating students, maintaining interactions with the same set of individuals before and after social distancing was related to more positive outcomes across a range of self-reported wellbeing and learning indicators. On average, students experienced a loss of frequent academic contacts, while they maintained or replaced social interactions in their interpersonal networks after social distancing. Our investigation of the ways students experienced changes in their social and academic networks after a loss of physical proximity points to the role of interpersonal interaction network continuity for fostering wellbeing and learning in times of disruption, as well as the potential need for support in maintaining or rebuilding academic networks.

Rural college graduates: Who comes home?

Many rural communities throughout the United States have experienced brain drain, or the out-migration of educated young people. Explanations for why college-educated adults leave rural communities have relied on economic rationales; however, the effects of social identities, community context, and place attachment have also been shown to influence migration decisions. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), this study examines factors experienced during adolescence as well as postsecondary characteristics that promote college graduates' return to their rural communities when they are between the ages of 34 and 43. We find that among college graduates who had attended a rural public K-12 school, those who had higher levels of school attachment were significantly more likely to return home compared to graduates who had lower levels of school attachment. The findings also suggest that graduates who came from a lower college-educated community were more likely to return home than those from average or highly college-educated communities. By analyzing long-term outcomes, this study extends our understanding of the strengths of adolescent experiences and neighborhood context influencing the pull to return home and the support for policies strengthening rural communities as there may be long-term effects to returning home, even if youth leave for college.

Teaching program evaluation: How blending theory and practice enhance student-evaluator competencies in an education policy graduate program.

Researchers examined student learning outcomes in two program evaluation courses, taught by the same instructors: a first-year PhD-level course taught using theory and a second-year master's-level course taught blending theory and application by executing an evaluation. Embedding this work in Ghere, King, Stevahn, and Minnema (2006) Essential Competencies for Program Evaluators Self-Assessment (ECPE), researchers investigated student perceptions of their evaluator competencies, scored end-of-course proposals, and interviewed program leaders to understand differences between the two teaching methods, as well as the extent to which the applied evaluation component of the master's-level course may have impacted differential, practice-based outcomes. Researchers analyzed program leader interviews and student data derived via survey, and a six-person team analyzed students' end-of-course proposals. Findings showed master's-level students independently rated all applied components of their course significantly higher than their and their PhD counterparts' rating of the theoretical components, which partially aligned with results of students' final, end-of-course proposals. Program leaders agreed that the applied course yielded strong evaluative findings, given what they perceived as a successful integration of theory and practice.