Academic Preparation for College: Inequalities in Access and Returns to High School Curricular Intensity

• In Event: 54.018 - Promising Scholarship in Education: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

The time period since 1980 has been characterized by substantial increases in the academic intensity of high school curricula (Attewell and Domina 2008; Goyette 2008). Although the goal of policies that increase curricular intensity is to prepare all students academically for college, socioeconomically advantaged students may disproportionately benefit. They are more likely to take high-level courses and subsequently may benefit more from such a curriculum at college entry (Lucas 2001). Growing income inequality and the expansion and differentiation of higher education may further motivate advantaged students to pursue and capitalize on curricular opportunities (Alon 2009). If so, curricular intensity may maintain or increase income- and education-based gaps in educational attainment over time, solidifying inequalities in socioeconomic attainment.

Author

• Megan Austin, American Institutes for Research