David B Monaghan
Biographic Data
| ID | 340052 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David B Monaghan |
| GIVEN NAMES | David B |
| FAMILY NAME | Monaghan |
| SIGNATURE | MONAGHAN D B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Shippensburg University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5116-5487 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 25 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
A Crisis of Discipline: The Decline of Sociology as an Undergraduate Major in United States in the 21st Century
Empty Promises: Why and How Community Colleges Exclude Undocumented Students from 'Free College' Promise Programs
Given their lower costs, community colleges are the most accessible postsecondary institutions for undocumented students. Emerging “free community college” (i.e. Promise) programs could therefore be uniquely beneficial for these students. Yet many programs exclude undocumented students, either explicitly or by requiring Pell eligibility or FAFSA completion. Drawing on a case study of a program at Milwaukee Area Technical College, including 146 st…
Can the Promise of Free Education Improve College Attainment? Lessons from the Milwaukee Area Technical College Promise
This study found that the MATC Promise increased college attainment by encouraging Milwaukee high school students to access state and federal aid, and to consider matriculating to their local two-year college. The MATC Promise exemplifies the last-dollar model of college aid. If seniors at Milwaukee area public high schools complete academic milestones, apply for financial aid, qualify based on low family income, and matriculate to Milwaukee Area…
Why do people go to college? The institutional environment and the educational dispositions of community college students
Empirical educational research nearly universally tacitly assumes that people attend college only in order to improve their likely earnings. Thus, it ignores the immense cultural importance ascribed to education (and particularly higher education) in modern culture, or at least proceeds as if this cultural valorization is irrelevant to individuals’ educational decision-making. I first review how an economistic model of action informs all dominant…
Schooled Families: Higher Education and Family Virtue
In today's 'knowledge society,' education is understood as highly instrumentally valuable, and institutional theorists have highlighted its immense cultural importance. What escapes commentary is the nearly universal moral reverence with which education is held. Since families are increasingly expected to participate in children's schooling, a family's moral virtue is partially established through offspring's school success. I explore this using …
Seeking STEM: The Causal Impact of Need-Based Grant Aid on Undergraduates’ Field of Study
Increasing the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees is a national priority and one way to promote the socioeconomic mobility of students from low-income families. Prior research examining why students do not complete STEM majors often points to students’ lack of academic preparation, preferences for non-STEM majors, or lack of information about the value of STEM. This paper uses a randomized experiment to inv…
College Promise Programs as Symbolic Politics
Since the Tennessee Promise's 2014 launch, 'free college' or 'Promise' programs have proliferated rapidly and converged on design features: a 'last-dollar' award and community college applicability. Researchers who study these programs' effects generally presume they are tuition-reducing endeavors. In contrast, we argue that many such programs are exercises in 'symbolic politics,' that is, they perform organizational altruism and meet survival im…
Predictors of College Enrollment across the Life Course: Heterogeneity by Age and Gender
Undergraduate college-going is now undertaken well into adulthood, but knowledge about what leads individuals to enroll derives nearly entirely from the study of the “traditionally-aged”. I examine whether and how predictors of enrollment vary as individuals progress through the life-course using nationally representative data from the United States, following a cohort from ages 18–45. Measures of social background and academic preparation are on…
The Pleasures and Perils of Staying in Paradigm: A Bourdieusian Take on the Selective Liberal Arts College
Dream Adjusters: High School Counselors in a Low-Income School District
Prior research has discussed high school counselors’ role in students’ experience, but counselors’ understandings of their work and of students has received little commentary. We interviewed counselors in a high-poverty, low-performing urban school district in which two structural elements shape how counselors make sense of their work. First, counselor “success” is contingent on convincing students to act in (what schools see as) students’ own be…
Moral education: The Cultural Significance of Higher Education in the Discourse of Non-Traditional Undergraduates
College-Going Trajectories Across Early Adulthood: An Inquiry Using Sequence Analysis
Though the diversification of pathways through higher education is widely recognized, little is known about longer-term patterns of undergraduate participation and attainment. I used sequence analysis to examine college-going across early and middle adulthood in nationally-representative data. Clustering of sequence data revealed four latent groups of college-goers: marginal students, rapid completers, lifelong students, and delayed completers. R…
Major Payoffs: Postcollege Income, Graduate School, and the Choice of “Risky” Undergraduate Majors
Although the bachelor's degree is considered the 'great equalizer,' returns vary substantially by field of study, particularly in the years immediately following graduation. In the first section of our analysis, we study the varying labor market experiences of recent graduates with different majors. We build on prior research by more fully accounting for the complicating role of graduate school attendance in the relationship between majors and in…
The Community College Route to the Bachelor’s Degree
It is well established that students who begin post-secondary education at a community college are less likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than otherwise similar undergraduates who begin at a 4-year school, but there is less consensus over the mechanisms generating this disparity. We explore these using national longitudinal transcript data and propensity-score methods. Inferior academic preparation does not seem to be the main culprit: We find f…
The Anatomy of an Experiment: Urban Poverty and “Moving to Opportunity”
Major Payoffs: Postcollege Income, Graduate School, and the Choice of “Risky” Undergraduate Majors
Although the bachelor's degree is considered the 'great equalizer,' returns vary substantially by field of study, particularly in the years immediately following graduation. In the first section of our analysis, we study the varying labor market experiences of recent graduates with different majors. We build on prior research by more fully accounting for the complicating role of graduate school attendance in the relationship between majors and in…
Moral education: The Cultural Significance of Higher Education in the Discourse of Non-Traditional Undergraduates
College-Going Trajectories Across Early Adulthood: An Inquiry Using Sequence Analysis
Though the diversification of pathways through higher education is widely recognized, little is known about longer-term patterns of undergraduate participation and attainment. I used sequence analysis to examine college-going across early and middle adulthood in nationally-representative data. Clustering of sequence data revealed four latent groups of college-goers: marginal students, rapid completers, lifelong students, and delayed completers. R…
College Promise Programs as Symbolic Politics
Since the Tennessee Promise's 2014 launch, 'free college' or 'Promise' programs have proliferated rapidly and converged on design features: a 'last-dollar' award and community college applicability. Researchers who study these programs' effects generally presume they are tuition-reducing endeavors. In contrast, we argue that many such programs are exercises in 'symbolic politics,' that is, they perform organizational altruism and meet survival im…
Dream Adjusters: High School Counselors in a Low-Income School District
Prior research has discussed high school counselors’ role in students’ experience, but counselors’ understandings of their work and of students has received little commentary. We interviewed counselors in a high-poverty, low-performing urban school district in which two structural elements shape how counselors make sense of their work. First, counselor “success” is contingent on convincing students to act in (what schools see as) students’ own be…
Seeking STEM: The Causal Impact of Need-Based Grant Aid on Undergraduates’ Field of Study
Increasing the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees is a national priority and one way to promote the socioeconomic mobility of students from low-income families. Prior research examining why students do not complete STEM majors often points to students’ lack of academic preparation, preferences for non-STEM majors, or lack of information about the value of STEM. This paper uses a randomized experiment to inv…
The Anatomy of an Experiment: Urban Poverty and “Moving to Opportunity”
The Community College Route to the Bachelor’s Degree
It is well established that students who begin post-secondary education at a community college are less likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than otherwise similar undergraduates who begin at a 4-year school, but there is less consensus over the mechanisms generating this disparity. We explore these using national longitudinal transcript data and propensity-score methods. Inferior academic preparation does not seem to be the main culprit: We find f…
Major Payoffs: Postcollege Income, Graduate School, and the Choice of “Risky” Undergraduate Majors
Although the bachelor's degree is considered the 'great equalizer,' returns vary substantially by field of study, particularly in the years immediately following graduation. In the first section of our analysis, we study the varying labor market experiences of recent graduates with different majors. We build on prior research by more fully accounting for the complicating role of graduate school attendance in the relationship between majors and in…
College-Going Trajectories Across Early Adulthood: An Inquiry Using Sequence Analysis
Though the diversification of pathways through higher education is widely recognized, little is known about longer-term patterns of undergraduate participation and attainment. I used sequence analysis to examine college-going across early and middle adulthood in nationally-representative data. Clustering of sequence data revealed four latent groups of college-goers: marginal students, rapid completers, lifelong students, and delayed completers. R…
Dream Adjusters: High School Counselors in a Low-Income School District
Prior research has discussed high school counselors’ role in students’ experience, but counselors’ understandings of their work and of students has received little commentary. We interviewed counselors in a high-poverty, low-performing urban school district in which two structural elements shape how counselors make sense of their work. First, counselor “success” is contingent on convincing students to act in (what schools see as) students’ own be…
Moral education: The Cultural Significance of Higher Education in the Discourse of Non-Traditional Undergraduates
Predictors of College Enrollment across the Life Course: Heterogeneity by Age and Gender
Undergraduate college-going is now undertaken well into adulthood, but knowledge about what leads individuals to enroll derives nearly entirely from the study of the “traditionally-aged”. I examine whether and how predictors of enrollment vary as individuals progress through the life-course using nationally representative data from the United States, following a cohort from ages 18–45. Measures of social background and academic preparation are on…
The Pleasures and Perils of Staying in Paradigm: A Bourdieusian Take on the Selective Liberal Arts College
Seeking STEM: The Causal Impact of Need-Based Grant Aid on Undergraduates’ Field of Study
Increasing the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees is a national priority and one way to promote the socioeconomic mobility of students from low-income families. Prior research examining why students do not complete STEM majors often points to students’ lack of academic preparation, preferences for non-STEM majors, or lack of information about the value of STEM. This paper uses a randomized experiment to inv…
College Promise Programs as Symbolic Politics
Since the Tennessee Promise's 2014 launch, 'free college' or 'Promise' programs have proliferated rapidly and converged on design features: a 'last-dollar' award and community college applicability. Researchers who study these programs' effects generally presume they are tuition-reducing endeavors. In contrast, we argue that many such programs are exercises in 'symbolic politics,' that is, they perform organizational altruism and meet survival im…
Can the Promise of Free Education Improve College Attainment? Lessons from the Milwaukee Area Technical College Promise
This study found that the MATC Promise increased college attainment by encouraging Milwaukee high school students to access state and federal aid, and to consider matriculating to their local two-year college. The MATC Promise exemplifies the last-dollar model of college aid. If seniors at Milwaukee area public high schools complete academic milestones, apply for financial aid, qualify based on low family income, and matriculate to Milwaukee Area…
Why do people go to college? The institutional environment and the educational dispositions of community college students
Empirical educational research nearly universally tacitly assumes that people attend college only in order to improve their likely earnings. Thus, it ignores the immense cultural importance ascribed to education (and particularly higher education) in modern culture, or at least proceeds as if this cultural valorization is irrelevant to individuals’ educational decision-making. I first review how an economistic model of action informs all dominant…
Schooled Families: Higher Education and Family Virtue
In today's 'knowledge society,' education is understood as highly instrumentally valuable, and institutional theorists have highlighted its immense cultural importance. What escapes commentary is the nearly universal moral reverence with which education is held. Since families are increasingly expected to participate in children's schooling, a family's moral virtue is partially established through offspring's school success. I explore this using …
Empty Promises: Why and How Community Colleges Exclude Undocumented Students from 'Free College' Promise Programs
Given their lower costs, community colleges are the most accessible postsecondary institutions for undocumented students. Emerging “free community college” (i.e. Promise) programs could therefore be uniquely beneficial for these students. Yet many programs exclude undocumented students, either explicitly or by requiring Pell eligibility or FAFSA completion. Drawing on a case study of a program at Milwaukee Area Technical College, including 146 st…
A Crisis of Discipline: The Decline of Sociology as an Undergraduate Major in United States in the 21st Century
Sociology (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Higher education (9 works) · Higher Education Research Studies (9 works) · Law (6 works) · Medical education (6 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Economics (5 works) · Demography (4 works)