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Oriented Towards College

Tue, December 18, 2:30 to 4:00pm, Seaport Hotel & World Trade Center, Waterfront 2 Ballroom

Abstract

There are significant disparities in educational attainment between religious traditions. Multiple studies find that Jews are the most educated group in America. However, existing explanations do not account for the ways Jews engage with social and cultural forces in the educational system. In this study, examine why Jews have exceptionally high rates of educational attainment in the U.S. My method is a secondary analysis of longitudinal surveys and interviews from the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR), a nationally representative study of 3,290 American adolescents that ran from 2002-2013. The NSYR over-sampled Jewish households so there are enough cases of Jews to compare with other religious groups. I find that compared to their peers of similar racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, Jewish adolescents are more oriented towards college from early on. Furthermore, their values are strongly aligned with those of the higher education system, including independence, worldliness, and liberal values. This study contributes to our understanding of how social and cultural capital varies by religious groups, and how it facilitates educational attainment.

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