Kim's work highlighted by Chronicle, AERA

Research by Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College Assistant Professor Jeongeun Kim has received increased attention in recent months, thanks to two respected sources.

In an article for the June 6 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education titled, “What Can Research Tell Us About Steep Cuts for Public Colleges?”, Eric Kelderman explored challenges for universities created by the lingering aftereffects of the Great Recession; particularly, a decrease in state support and the uncertainty of such support continuing. Kelderman highlighted a finding by Kim and research assistant Emeka Ikegwuonu in their study, “Strategy for Closing the Gap? Universities’ use of fees and the volatility in state appropriation.” Kim and Ikegwuonu presented their paper at the Forum on the Future of Public Education, hosted in June by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Kelderman wrote, “They found that, in most cases, declines in state appropriations didn’t result in an increase in overall fees. But cutbacks did change the kind and purpose of fees. When state dollars are cut … colleges may charge more fees for facilities and academic purposes, or even create a new fee to offset the loss of public money. Unlike tuition, fees tend to go down when state appropriations increase by more than 3 percent, they wrote.”

In November, Kim was one of 15 invited participants in the Fall Research Conference of the American Educational Research Association. AERA’s Grants Program, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, supports early career scholars and graduate students who are using large-scale, federally funded data sets to address education research topics such as mathematics education, literacy, school discipline policies, student motivation and other topics related to STEM learning and education. Kim was recognized for her in-progress study, “Explaining the Gender Gap: Are departmental and institutional characteristics linked to labor market outcomes of STEM graduates?”

Kim will present her research again in April for a poster session at AERA’s 2019 annual meeting in Toronto.