10. Stephen L. Morgan, Sociology
On the Edge of Commitment: Educational Attainment and Race in the United States (Stanford University Press, 2005). A college education is an important predictor for labor market success, yet social scientists know little about the complex reasons why some students prepare to go to college and some do not. There are theories regarding the predictors for educational attainment, such as parents’ education, family income, test scores, family disruptions, neighborhood and school characteristics, and rising tuition costs, but there are no adequate theoretical models for explaining how high school graduates and their parents form beliefs in order to make decisions about college enrollment. Giving scholars a new framework for further research, Morgan explores the kinds of data that need to be collected to evaluate incentive-based explanations, such as shifts in tuition and financial aid. The book uses a model to explain race differences in patterns of high school achievement and subsequent rates of college enrollment.