Developing a synthetic science of academic progress

This work-in-progress is an effort to locate anchoring concepts, methodological tools, and early empirical insights to frame interdisciplinary inquiry on academic progress. We summarize and seek to integrate work from decision theory, economics, learning science, social psychology, and organizational studies that provide leverage on the general phenomenon of cumulative movement through academic systems. We also call for methodological pluralism in the study of academic progress through conscientious matching of inquiry design and data-collection methods with specific theoretical and substantive problems in this domain.