Understanding School Racial Composition and Higher Educational Outcomes

• In Event: 523 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 10. School Context and Characteristics: Session I

Abstract

This research seeks to explore how high school racial composition (percent Blacks and Hispanics within schools) may affect students’ higher educational aspirations and eventual attainment. This project uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health from a cohort of seventh through twelfth grade students for a fifteen-year period. Students who attend mostly minority as well as mostly White public high schools, compared to those who attend more diverse public high schools have both lower educational ambitions and lower educational attainment. With some exceptions, these effects persist throughout most of the models upon adding more control variables. For final models for educational aspirations, there were significant, interactive results for only Hispanics and Asians. For final models for whether one attended college, there were significant interactive results for Black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian students. Also, for final models for whether one completed a four year degree, there were significant results for Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians. Lastly, the final models for educational attainment showed there were significant interactive effects between individual student race and school racial/ethnic composition for Asian, Black, Hispanic and American Indian students. Overall significant interactive results simultaneously showed that Blacks and Latinos can educationally benefit from attending mostly White schools as well as mostly minority schools.

Authors

• Tori LaShan Thomas, Penn State University

• Erica Frankenberg