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Kyle Henson
Professor Jan Rieman
UWRT 1103
15 October 2014
Inquiry at Work
The University of Texas was tackling a huge problem that goes unnoticed in most
peoples minds. Luckily, staff members at the University of Texas were willing to find answers
to their questions to one day figure out a solution to the problems that plague American
universities. They were able to do this through the series of constant questions that are a part of
the inquiry process.
This article showed me the possibilities that the inquiry process has. It isnt just
something that involves research and leads to a better understanding of a topic. That
understanding can lead to action taking place to better our environment. This experiment took
all that these professionals learned about educational psychology alongside their curiosity about
the gap between affluent and poor in the college setting and put that into action. It turns out that
these guys found out more about this subject than they thought they ever would and have already
started developing programs that seem to be working.
The University of Texas explored all kinds of different lines of inquiry to accomplish
what they sought out to do: figure out how to close the education gap between affluent students
and first generation college students as well as closing the gap between the different races. The
most obvious is personal research. The man with the psychology doctorate obviously spent a lot

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of time researching the field of educational psychology. He was able to do a lot more by seeing
what he did as a graduate research assistant at Stanford. When he got to Texas, he decided to put
the experiments together about the small intervention at all different levels of the educational
process. At each level, he wanted to apply it to a greater level until he got to the University and
figured out that he was actually on to something. They also looked up quite a few statistics
along the way. The one I found the most interesting was the graph that showed how likely
someone born into a low income family would succeed with a college degree and without. The
results were staggering, with almost 45% of people without a degree staying in the lowest
quintile, while only about 16% with a college degree staying in the lowest quintile. I thought it
was interesting how the author of the article interviewed students that were involved with these
programs at Texas individually. Most of the article talks about numbers from a big picture
perspective, but Vanessas story at the beginning and end of the article were nice to sandwich all
of the numbers in the middle. It grounded all of the information that was being thrown at us by
the staff members involved in the university.
Inquiry can be used to tackle huge problems, and is especially interesting when talking
about a topic relevant to our lives. The University of Texas is trying to raise the graduation rate
of disadvantaged students to the levels of the advantaged students, and seems to be making
headway. This article got me thinking about how inquiry doesnt have to just be about asking
questions and finding the answer, but it can be about applying that answer for the greater good.
Reflective Afterthought: I enjoyed reading the article. It is especially helpful as we are getting
into our inquiry projects. I thought I did a decent job at getting my thoughts from my head to the
paper in this one. I had a little bit of trouble condensing it to a two page assignment, but nothing
too bad.