School Cultural Context, Racial Differences in Schooling Experience, and Post-secondary Academic Outcomes

• In Event: 2484 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 17. Race and Ethnicity in Education 1

Abstract

While many studies examine the role of individual-level behaviors, values, and beliefs (or culture) on student achievement and educational attainment, few studies investigate how culture on an institutional (supra-individual) level predict student outcomes. Using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, we examine whether culture, both at the individual and school-level, matters for individual students’ college enrollment and educational attainment separately for whites, blacks, and Hispanics. We also examine three mechanisms that explain why school cultural context matters: 1) individual-level academic orientation, 2) individual-level background factors, and 3) school-level factors (e.g., school-level SES). Our analyses suggest culture at the school level—measured as both cultural centrality (level) and cultural heterogeneity (variance)—predicts enrollment and attainment, and does so more for white students than for blacks and Hispanics. Moreover, individual-level academic orientation is an important mechanism for whites and individual-level background factors for blacks, suggesting the process by which school culture matters operates differently for each racial group. For black students, the role of cultural context is more of a resource-based story. This study highlights the need to recognize public versus personal distinction of culture to provide more conceptual clarity and to understand the role of culture beyond the individual.

Authors

• John Paul Bumpus, Duke University

• Angel Harris, Duke University