Publications | Richard Arum — Sociology of Education, Higher Education & College-to-Career Research

Selected publications by Richard Arum on higher education, undergraduate learning, educational inequality, college-to-career transitions, student well-being, intellectual virtues, school discipline, law and society, and the sociology of education. For a complete list of books, articles, chapters, reports, and media writing, please see the full CV.

Books and Edited Volumes

Richard Arum’s books include Academically Adrift, Aspiring Adults Adrift, Judging School Discipline, Stratification in Higher Education, Improving Quality in American Higher Education, and the forthcoming The Liberal Arts Advantage. See the Books page for descriptions, reviews, and publisher links.

Higher Education Learning Outcomes and Undergraduate Development

This work examines how colleges shape students’ academic growth, critical thinking, written communication, civic capacity, self-regulation, and broader undergraduate development. It also advances institutional measurement systems that move beyond retention, graduation, and earnings to capture the deeper purposes of higher education.

• Arum, Richard, Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Jutta Heckhausen, Gabe Avakian Orona, Luise von Keyserlingk, Christopher M. Wegemer, Charles E. Wright & Katsumi Yamaguchi-Pedroza. 2021. “A Framework for Measuring Undergraduate Learning and Growth.” Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 53(6), 51–59.

• Roksa, Josipa and Richard Arum. 2015. “Inequality in Skill Development on College Campuses.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 39, 19–31.

• Roksa, Josipa and Richard Arum. 2011. “The State of Undergraduate Learning.” Change Magazine.

• Arum, Richard, Josipa Roksa and Esther Cho. 2011. Improving Undergraduate Learning: Findings and Policy Recommendations from the SSRC-CLA Longitudinal Project. Social Science Research Council.

• Arum, Richard and Josipa Roksa with Melissa Velez. 2008. Learning to Reason and Communicate in College: Lessons from the CLA Longitudinal Project. Social Science Research Council.

College-to-Career Transitions, Co-ops, Work, and Social Mobility

This research examines how educational institutions shape students’ transitions into work, careers, and adult life. It includes studies of school-to-work pathways, college-to-career transitions, employer partnerships, 21st-century skills, and the institutional conditions that support or constrain social mobility.

• Arum, Richard and Mitchell Stevens. 2020. Building Tomorrow’s Workforce Today: Twin Proposals for the Future of Learning, Opportunity, and Work. Brookings Institution / Hamilton Project.

• Arum, Richard and Mitchell Stevens. 2020. “What is a College Education in the Time of Coronavirus?” New York Times.

• Arum, Richard and Michael Hout. 1997. “The Early Returns: Transitions from School to Work in the United States.”

• Arum, Richard and Sandra Way. 2004. “The Significance of School-Business Institutional Ties: Effects of School Assisted Job Placement on Male and Female Early Labor Market Outcomes.”

• Arum, Richard and Yossi Shavit. 1995. “Secondary Vocational Education and the Transition from School to Work.” Sociology of Education, 68, 187–204.

• Orona, Gabe, Lydia Liu and Richard Arum. 2023. “The Language of 21st Century Skills: Next Directions for Closing the Skills Gap Between Employers and Postsecondary Graduates.”

Intellectual Virtues, Liberal Arts Education, and Holistic Student Development

This work explores how higher education can cultivate intellectual virtues such as curiosity, humility, integrity, tenacity, and reflective judgment. It connects liberal arts education to measurable forms of cognitive, moral, and civic development that matter for lifelong learning and democratic participation.

• Arum, Richard, Paul Courant and Allyson Flaster, eds. Forthcoming 2026. The Liberal Arts Advantage: Measuring the Deeper Value. University of Chicago Press.

• Orona, Gabe Avakian, Duncan Pritchard, Richard Arum, Jacquelynne Eccles, Quoc-Viet Dang, David Copp, Daniel Alexander Herrmann, Bruce Rushing, and Steffen Zitzmann. 2024. “Epistemic Virtue in Higher Education: Testing the Mechanisms of Intellectual Character Development.” Current Psychology.

• DeVries, Jeffrey, Gabe Avakian Orona & Richard Arum. 2025. “Student and Teacher Intellectual Humility at a Diverse Research University.” Studies in Higher Education.

• DeVries, J. M., Orona, G. A., & Arum, R. 2025. “How Expectations, Feedback, and Course Materials Relate to Intellectual Humility in Higher Education.” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.

• Orona, Gabe Avakian, Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Sabrina Solanki, David A. Copp, Quoc-Viet Dang, and Richard Arum. 2025. “The Structure of Adult Thinking: A Network Approach to (Meta) Cognitive Processing.” Learning and Individual Differences.

Educational Inequality, Stratification, and the Sociology of Education

This work investigates how schools and colleges reproduce, reduce, or redirect social inequality. It includes studies of institutional organization, school resources, stratification in higher education, incarceration risk, school competition, vocational education, and the broader sociology of educational systems.

• Stevens, Mitchell, Elizabeth Armstrong and Richard Arum. 2008. “Sieve, Incubator, Temple, Hub.” Annual Review of Sociology.

• Arum, Richard. 2000. “Schools and Communities: Ecological and Institutional Dimensions.” Annual Review of Sociology.

• Arum, Richard. 1996. “Do Private Schools Force Public Schools to Compete?” American Sociological Review.

• Arum, Richard. 1998. “The Effects of Resources on Vocational Student Educational Outcomes.” Sociology of Education.

• Arum, Richard and Gary LaFree. 2008. “Educational Attainment, Teacher/Student Ratios and Adult Incarceration Risk Among U.S. Birth Cohorts Since 1910.” Sociology of Education.

• LaFree, Gary and Richard Arum. 2006. “The Impact of Racially Segregated Schooling on the Risk of Adult Incarceration Rates.” Criminology.

• Arum, Richard, Michelle Budig, and Josipa Roksa. 2008. “The Romance of College Attendance.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility.

• Shavit, Yossi, Richard Arum and Adam Gamoran, eds. 2007. Stratification in Higher Education: A Comparative Study.

School Discipline, Law, Rights, and Educational Authority

This body of work examines school discipline, legal consciousness, student rights, organizational authority, and the role of law in everyday school life. It connects sociology of education with law and society research to understand how schools maintain order, produce inequality, and shape students’ experiences of institutional authority.

• Arum, Richard with Irenee Beattie, Richard Pitt, Jennifer Thompson, Sandra Way. 2003. Judging School Discipline: The Crisis of Moral Authority in American Schools. Harvard University Press.

• Morrill, Calvin, Lauren Edelman, Karolyn Tyson and Richard Arum. 2010. “Legal Mobilization in Schools.” Law and Society Review.

• Preiss, Doreet, Richard Arum, Lauren Edelman, Calvin Morrill and Karolyn Tyson. 2015. “The More You Talk, the Worse It Is.” Social Currents.

• Thompson, Jason, Richard Arum, Lauren Edelman, Calvin Morrill and Karolyn Tyson. 2015. “In-services and Empty Threats.” Social Science Research.

• Arum, Richard and Doreet Preiss. 2009. “Law and Disorder in the Classroom.” Education Next.

• Arum, Richard and Karly Ford. 2012. “School Discipline in Comparative Perspective.” Educational Leadership.

• Edelman, Lauren B., Allen Michael Wright, Calvin Morrill, Karolyn Tyson, and Richard Arum. 2024. “The Power of the Accused.” Law & Society Review.

Student Well-Being, Engagement, and Campus Climate

This research examines how students experience college, manage academic demands, seek support, and maintain well-being. It draws on surveys, administrative data, digital trace data, and longitudinal designs to better understand student engagement, stress, persistence, and institutional support.

• Moeller, Julia, Luise von Keyserlingk, Marion Spengler, Hanna Gaspard, Hye Rin Lee, Katsumi Yamaguchi-Pedroza, Renzhe Yu, Christian Fischer, and Richard Arum. 2022. “Risk and Protective Factors of College Students’ Psychological Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” AERA Open.

• von Keyserlingk, Luise, Katsumi Yamaguchi-Pedroza, Jacquelynne Eccles and Richard Arum. 2021. “Stress of University Students Before and After Campus Closure in Response to COVID-19.” Journal of Community Psychology.

• Hye Rin Lee, Luise von Keyserlingk, Richard Arum and Jacquelynne Eccles. 2021. “Why Do They Enroll in This Course? Undergraduates’ Course Choice from a Motivational Perspective.” Frontiers in Education.

• von Keyserlingk, Luise, Julia Moeller, Jutta Heckhausen, Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Richard Arum. 2023. “Adjusting to College – Do Ability Beliefs and Confidence in Getting Support Matter for Performance and Mental Health?”

• von Keyserlingk, Luise, Fani Lauermann, Renzhe Yu, Charlott Rubach, Richard Arum. 2023. “What Can Digital Trace Data Tell Us about Post-secondary Students’ Academic Success?”