Richard Arum's research is focused on education, social stratification and formal organizations. In this vein, he has studied stratification patterns across tertiary systems, the transition between college and the labor market, and the quality of American higher education institutions. Also, as Director of the Education Research Program at the Social Science Research Council, Arum participated in the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) longitudinal study, which identified variation in the development of generic higher order skills of a recent cohort of American college students. Arum has also conducted extensive research on K-12 education. Specifically, he has analyzed student achievement gaps by race and class, school segregation and stratification, the effects of legal and institutional environments, and the evolution of discipline in American schools. Currently, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, Arum is studying the relationships between neighborhood disadvantage, digital media and educational outcomes. His research on educational interventions is designed to identify policies and practices that could mitigate the relationship between social background, disadvantaged neighborhood context and educational outcomes.