56.076 - High School and Beyond: Effects of Equality and Inequality of Educational Opportunity at Midlife

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium presents findings about the long run effects of education on midlife adult outcomes. It is based on the recently collected midlife follow-up of High School & Beyond (HS&B) sophomore and senior cohorts. HS&B is nationally representative study of diverse high school sophomores and seniors in 1980. Previous studies using the HS&B showed important differences in early adult outcomes that could be traced back to inequality of students’ opportunities to learn in high school. Findings from the midlife follow-up, presented here, indicate long run effects of educational opportunities in high school and beyond—among men and women, persons of different race and ethnicities, and persons with disabilities—that lead to midlife inequality in work and occupations, health, and civic participation.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Sociology of Education

Chair

• David Bills, The University of Iowa

Papers

• Education and the Intergenerational Transmission of Occupational Advantage - Eric Grodsky, University of Wisconsin

• High School STEM Courses and Midlife Occupation - Chandra Muller, The University of Texas - Austin

• Demographic Differentials in Health Returns to College Degree Attainment and Selectivity - John R. Warren, University of Minnesota

• Sustaining a Nonrepresentative Democracy: How Academic Inequality in High School Affects Voting in Midlife - Jamie Mary Carroll, The University of Texas - Austin

Discussant

• David Bills, The University of Iowa