Department of Human & Community Development, University of Illinois

Christy Lleras

 

 

 

 

Curriculum vita (pdf)

Education

Ph.D. 2003, Pennsylvania State University, Sociology

M.S. 1999, Pennsylvania State University, Sociology

B.A. 1996, University of North Carolina, Sociology

Research Interests

Social Stratification, Sociology of Education, Quantitative Methods, Race and Ethnicity, Neighborhood Effects and Segregation.

My research program examines the micro-processes involved in educational and labor market stratification, with an emphasis on explaining race and class differences. Drawing on elements from human, cultural, and social capital theories, I examine how the social structure embedded within families, schools, and neighborhoods interacts with human agency to influence life opportunities and success. Unlike prior stratification research which has often emphasized the importance of either the social structure or the individual, my research views educational and occupational outcomes as the result of an interaction or feedback process between the structure of opportunities available to people and an individual’s skills, behaviors, and attitudes.

 

From a developmental perspective, I am interested in how structural processes within families, schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods affect the achievement and behavioral trajectories of children and youth by focusing on several key transition points in child and adolescent development, including preschool, the transition from kindergarten to first grade, the transition from middle to high school, and the transition from high school to either post-secondary education or the world of work. Two specific questions guide my research: (1) how do neighborhoods, schools and family dynamics influence the developmental, educational, and employment trajectories of different racial and socioeconomic groups? (2) How does the local opportunity structure, defined in terms of access to post-secondary educational and employment opportunities, interact with individual skills and behaviors to impact the educational and occupational trajectories of youths from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds?

In order to examine what causes racial and socioeconomic gaps in achievement to emerge and grow over time, my research program has increasingly focused on the relationship between the social structure of schooling and student attitudes and behaviors in the earliest years of schooling. This research project extends prior studies on the effects of ability grouping practices in school by examining how these sorting processes influence not only racial and class differences in skill development, but student effort and perceptions about their own abilities and interest in school as well. In another line of research, I examine how adolescent involvement in extracurricular activities both inside and outside of school, paid employment, and peer activities, influence post-secondary educational attainment and employment outcomes in young adulthood. This project extends prior research by examining whether the effect of adolescent social involvement varies by the student's racial and socioeconomic background as well as their neighborhood and school context (i.e., rural v. urban, high poverty).

A final line of research explores the mechanisms of inequality and poverty in early adulthood by examining the interaction between family background, individual characteristics, and the local opportunity structure. There are two main questions which guide this research. First, how much of the variation in educational attainment and labor market outcomes is due to individual differences in skills and habits and how much is due to place-based differences in the availability and access to post-secondary education and jobs? Second, how does the opportunity structure, defined in terms of proximity to post-secondary education and quality of local labor markets, impact the educational and occupational choices of youths in rural and urban (central city) neighborhoods?

My research utilizes a variety of secondary data sources and requires the use of advanced quantitative techniques and statistical programs, including hierarchical linear modeling, factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and ordered and multinomial logistic regression analysis. I also combine multilevel regression models with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to map access to opportunities using national survey data and data from the 2000 Census

Current Graduate Student Activities

I am currently working with a graduate student, Claudia Rangel, on an international research project in Latin America. We are utilizing survey and geographical data to model the impact of neighborhood poverty and segregation on educational inequality in the city of Cartagena, Colombia. One of the main goals of this study is to examine how school quality, family background and neighborhood characteristics together influence the likelihood student dropout rates and achievement across the city.

Selected Publications

Lleras, Christy. “Path Analysis” (2004). The Encyclopedia of Social Measurement. New York: Academic Press.

Farkas, George, Christy Lleras, and Steve Maczuga (2002). “Does Oppositional Culture Exist in Minority and Poverty Peer Groups?” American Sociological Review 67(1): 148-55.

Courses Taught

HCD 533: Community in American Society

HCD 595N: Human Development, Neighborhoods and Communities

HDFS 420: Family Diversity in the U.S.