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Although more women enter formerly maledominated fields, they remain underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This paper examines how adolescent's social environment, defined as friends in class and other (nonfriend) classmates, influence genderspecific STEM choices. We study if boys and girls are influenced differently by the math achievement of the environment and by the gender normative ideas of their environment. We used three waves (N = 726) from the CILS project, which surveyed adolescents in secondary education in the Netherlands at age 15 (2011/2012) and after secondary education at age 1718 (2014 & 2015). Using multinominallogistic regression analyses, results show that the likelihood of choosing STEM fields over nonSTEM fields increases when friends in class are better in mathematics, but decreases when friends in class have a higher comparative advantage in mathematics (are better in mathematics compared to languages). A higher math achievement of nonfriend classmates decreases the likelihood of choosing biology over nonSTEM fields, but their higher comparative advantage in mathematics increases the likelihood of choosing biology. We conclude that both the average math achievement and the comparative advantage in mathematics of students' environment matter for STEM choices, but that the environment's achievement does not explain gender differences in STEM fields. Moreover, friends and nonfriend classmates are different aspects of students' social environment as they influence students' STEM choices differently. Lastly, a more traditional gender normative environment impedes girls from entering STEM fields, suggesting that gender stereotypes of STEM fields as masculine are influential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has two objectives. The first objective is to analyze race, class, and gender differences in high school course-taking and achievement among 1996-97 Florida public high school graduates by playing students in high school educational pathways based on their mathematics and science courses taken and achievement in these course. We then supplement this analysis by determining the extent to which race, class, and gender differences in course-taking and achievement both contributed to patterns of educational achievement in high school. This paper is the first part of a larger set of analyses that examine the structural and individual influences on high school educational pathways in relation to the likelihood of students pursuing science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) college majors and careers after high school. Given educational opportunities provided in high schools embedded in specific local school districts and communities, students, presumably with input from school guidance counselors and parents, must decide how far to proceed in available mathematics and science sequences. This paper describes race, class, and gender patterns of educational pathways of individual students and finds that Asian students take more difficult courses and have higher achievement than white students. Both groups have more advanced course-taking and achievement than black and Hispanic students. Students on free lunch do not perform on the level of students who are not on free lunch. Females have high achievement than males and are more likely to take Algebra II and Chemistry, but are less likely than males to take Calculus and Physics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing national focus on the need for high academic standards, coupled with the growing importance of obtaining a postsecondary degree, has led to the expansion of programs that allow high school students to take college-level classes and earn college credit while still in high school. Proponents contend that these initiatives, collectively known as credit-based transition programs (CBTPs), can smooth student transitions into college by helping students acquire the academic and social skills necessary for success in college. While CBTPs have tended to enroll high-achieving students, many programs are broadening their reach to middle- and even low-achieving high school students. Despite widespread support for program expansion on the part of policymakers, few researchers have sought to establish the means by which CBTPs may promote student success in college. As such, any policy created to support these programs will be atheoretical and may lead to unintended consequences. This paper develops a conceptual model hypothesizing why and how CBTPs may lead to their intended outcomes. Based on the findings from case study research exploring the structure of five diverse CBTPs, we hypothesize that CBTPs promote student access and success by strengthening students' academic skills, motivation, and understanding of the social and procedural demands of postsecondary education. In addition to presenting the conceptual model and case study data, this paper provides suggestions for policymakers seeking to increase successful student transitions to college, particularly for middle- and low-achieving students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of Gay-Straight Alliance clubs [GSAs] in high schools across the United States, has grown from two in 1989 to over 2,000 by the year 2004. One important factor in the spread of these clubs has been the coordinating and networking of information and local efforts by several, state, regional and national organizations. Since the early 1990s, organizations like the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network [GLSEN], Project 10, The Safe Schools Coalition, and the GSA Network in California have established themselves as groups that both assist lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender [LGBT] students starting GSA clubs and that educate educators, parents, policy makers, and the general public about the needs and rights of these students. These efforts, combined with the work of LGBT and straight ally students, have coalesced into a social movement. This paper examines effectiveness of the newly emerging GSA movement in establishing themselves as experts on LGBT issues in education, getting their framing of the issues out through the media, and influencing public opinion. The paper also examines the effectiveness of countermovement organizations from the religious right in influencing these same things with their frames of the issues. The assessment is based on a content analysis of over three hundred new stories, editorials, and letters to the editor about GSAs that appeared in newspapers around the country from 1984 to 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the findings of a 3-year longitudinal study on the effect of medium of instruction policy in Hong Kong will be presented. In September 1997, the newly established government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region published a policy document entitled Medium of Instruction Guidance for Secondary Schools (Guidance) The Guidance stipulated that all secondary schools were required to use Chinese as MOI starting with their 1998/99 Secondary-1 intakes. However, the Guidance allowed individual schools to apply for using English as MOI if they could prove their instructional efficacy. After two rounds of applications and assessments, about a quarter of secondary schools, i.e. 114 schools, were granted the status of using English as MOI (EMI), while the other three quarters of secondary schools were required to adopted Chinese as MOI (CMI). The Guidance has spawned a series of discussions and criticisms, yet all of them are theoretical and perceptional in nature. None of them have ever provided any empirical evidences relating to the effects and consequences of the policy measures of the Guidance. In this paper, findings of a policy evaluation research on the effects of the Guidance will be reported. The samples of the study are student (approximately 17,000) in 100 randomly sampled secondary schools. These students? growth curves in five academic areas are constructed with Hierarchical Linear Modeling to assess the effects of EMI-CMI streaming on their academic growth. The five academic areas are English, Chinese, mathematics, science and social studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the forces that have influenced changes in the way history is written. Specifically, the paper investigates systematically changes in the modern world history teaching in three Chinese societies in East Asia, namely, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The main objective is to examine differences in the organization of and emphasis on world history instructional content in junior and senior secondary school textbooks to better understand the meaning and implications of these changes that are embedded in this school subject. For an investigation of textbook content, a total of 26 world history textbooks from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong have been selected. The focus is on the inclusion and presentation of the historical figures in these textbooks by specifically looking at the historical characters mentioned within the chronological. By applying both a cross-time and cross-sectional analysis of these textbooks, it is hoped that some adequate and meaningful theoretical explanations for school curricular reform and social change might begin to emerge. The paper concludes by discussing how world educational models might have had an effect in shaping the local realities of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate variation in the extent to which mathematics placement informally influences participation or "de facto" tracks students in other courses and extracurricular activities, in the context of school policy that formally rejects tracking. We ask: How do students, teachers, counselors, and administrators understand how to match students to learning opportunities--and what might explain cases where courses are not de facto tracked? Using a survey of 1285 students, over 1,000 hours of observations, and 69 interviews in an inclusive STEM-focused urban school district, we find mathematics de facto tracking occurs in distinctly higher-status and lower-status courses and activities like computer science and automotive, but not engineering. In engineering, "institutional ambiguity," where competing logics frame courses and activities, appears to ameliorate mathematics de facto tracking. Ambiguity is supported by three organizational factors: 1) courses and activities occurring in vocational and academic spaces, 2) teachers linking vocational and academic fields, and 3) an organizational commitment to the integration of vocational activities. Overall, our findings suggest educational organizations may be able to leverage institutional ambiguity to support greater equity in STEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is part of a larger project that follows the lives of 28 African American teenagers in a diverse small-city high school in the Northeast. Through interviews and observations at public events, this longitudinal study traces their hopes, fears, and educational experiences with the goal of gaining insight into the long standing dilemma of persistent racial and ethnic achievement differences in high school. The paper focuses on a subset of male and female athletes and explores the role sports may play as a mediating factor in providing a positive school experience, greater school attachment, and academic achievement. I make three main points. First, at the most obvious level, high school sports is the one area where racial and class barriers break down. The manner, however, in which sports provide the occasion for cross racial friendships differs for male and female athletes. Second, high school sports in general provide a means for greater school attachment, an incentive for academic achievement, and a promised path to a college education, yet few realize the promise. Nevertheless, sports may have been a key reason why they lasted as long as they did in high school, with most graduating. Third, the role of coaches becomes an important source of social and cultural capital for some, although it varies by athlete and sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores two approaches to considering neighborhoods and schools as simultaneous contexts for adolescent educational attainment. First, multi-level model estimates show that indicators of neighborhood socioeconomic status predict high school graduation and college attendance, while both neighborhood SES and mean neighborhood educational attainment also matter for college attendance. Next, the school is considered as a context for competition and comparison, and the relative resources of one's neighborhood are compared to others' in one's school. Results show that being from a more disadvantaged neighborhood than peers decreases the odds of high school graduation, controlling for one's own neighborhood characteristics. Finally, interactions between neighborhood disadvantage and specific school characteristics are modeled, and results suggest that attending a school with highly ambitious peers may offset the negative impact of coming from a disadvantaged neighborhood for college attendance. While not without limitations, the paper contributes to existing research by demonstrating two approaches to considering these two important contexts for academic success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS), a New York City public alternative high school, and its positioning as an innovative educational institution at the forefront of a national social movement for educational reform. For many supporters, CPESS represented an example of successful education for low income and racialized students. However, despite wide acclaim in the ten years after its founding, the school began to decline in 1995. Although CPESS was unable to sustain itself, the school became the inspiration for dozens of schools and created a framework for alternative public educational institutions across the country. The CPESS legacy and the schools it inspired outlived and continue to survive the original institution. This paper will apply social movement and organizational frameworks to analyze the development, decline and continuing legacy of CPESS, and its implications for public education and for racialized students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little longitudinal data is available on the impact of Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) conferences. The purpose of the conferences is to encourage girls to take more math and science in high school by exposing them to hands-on activities and role models in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This paper is based on 2005 and 2006 one-to-one and small group interview data from 22 high school girls who attended an EYH conference during their middle school years. While a few of the girls could not recall the EYH experience, most of the girls relayed detailed descriptions of their day. Some of the girls then drew connections between their EYH experiences and their course taking actions and career goals. Results also indicate that some girls take math and science in high school so they can attend college, but have no intention of majoring in a STEM area. The paper highlights aspects of the EYH conference activities with the greatest salience and makes recommendations for future intervention work. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on 17 months of ethnographic research in three New York City high schools, this paper examines the interaction of two current policy trends, school choice and accountability. To date, studies of school choice construct the family, rather than the school, as the agent empowered with choice. Diverging from this tradition, this paper examines the role of the school as an actor in shaping its student intake. I ask how administrators constitute the "right" parent or student for their school, how they navigate the confines of the system to achieve the intake that they desire, and how these decisions are associated with the need to achieve outcome targets. Once the school year commences, I examine how pressure to achieve targets influences principals' decisions to counsel out those students who are considered liabilities. To explain variation in these schools' management of choice, I show how principals' understandings of environmental demands and opportunities shape their approaches to the choice process, and how principals' embeddedness in local networks facilitates or inhibits their access to information. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, part of a larger project on teens' first year after high school, analyzes 125 in-depth panel interviews. Contrary to longstanding presumptions, teens do not jettison their religious faith in early adulthood; there is a decline in religious participation, but not in religious identification. Yet, contrary to Astin (2004), most teens do not prioritize their religious lives and are not on a quest to find meaning and purpose. For most American teens, religious faith distills into: God exists, he wants me to be a nice person, and he will help me if I am (cp. Smith 2005). I contend that teens stow this faith soon after high school graduation in an identity lockbox, where it stays until teens wish to re-engage later in the life cycle. This simple faith is surprisingly enduring, because it undergirds popular American moral culture and keeps its holders within the American cultural mainstream. Exceptions occur only among anti-religious teens, extremely committed religious teens, and the teen intelligentsia. These results offer important refinements to Swidler's cultural theory of settled and unsettled lives (2001), and expansion of Smith's subcultural religious identity theory (1998). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Students First Mentoring Program (SFMP) is a U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE)-funded intervention to improve retention of low-income, first-generation students at Portland State University. Combining best practices from already established programs such as Student Support Services and Educational Opportunity Program with theoretical concepts from role theory, this program offers a wide range of support services for first-generation college students designed to make the shift to college life less difficult and, in the process, improve student retention rates. In this paper we present a brief over-view of the SFMP, examine the literature on student retention and role mastery, present a conceptual model - the two path model of student academic performance at college, and discuss three specific program elements that are drawn from role theory. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current group comparisons indicate that, despite social and legal attempts to remove institutional barriers, there remains a persistent disparity in the college going patterns of U.S. youth based gender, racial-ethnic identification and privilege. This paper describes a study of nearly 300 high school students at the predisposition stage of the Hossler and Gallagher college choice process. The study's purpose was to determine the social influences students perceived to be most important during predisposition, and influence differentiation when considering student characteristics. Much of the extant literature on postsecondary access and attainment focuses on issues of matriculation and retention. Many studies take for granted the ways that traditional understandings of student characteristics account for student predisposition to participating in postsecondary education. The results of this study illuminate some of the differences in influences that predispose students to college going and differences in educational aspirations among students based on gender, racial-ethnic identity and privilege. The findings highlight some implications these differences have for the way that schools and communities facilitate the transition from high school to college. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educators' and policymakers' concerns about the ability of young people to enter and succeed in postsecondary education have led to calls for closer collaboration between the secondary and postsecondary education systems. As a consequence, colleges and high schools are engaging in partnerships intended to increase postsecondary persistence. This paper attempts to understand why some partnerships are successful while others-with similar intentions and initial enthusiasm-are not. Using resource dependency theory and data drawn from in-depth case studies of four diverse high school-college partnerships, we argue that collaborative efforts are likely to thrive when both partners feel that the partnership gives them access to valued resources. The partners need not benefit in the same ways, but both must believe that engaging in collaboration will help them manage their environment. If either or both institutions do not feel that collaboration results in resource acquisition, the partnership is unlikely to be sustained. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs a comparative framework to examine patterns in gender disparities in educational attainment over time for Whites, Blacks, Mexican-Americans, and Puerto-Rican Americans, from 1960-2000. An examination of U.S. Census data reveals that while the gender gaps and patterns are not uniform across all four groups, a female advantage in both college and high school graduation is evident for all groups by 2000. Among African-Americans, females have consistently attained more education overall than their male counterparts since 1960; the phenomenon is more recent for Latinos and Whites. The aggregate data patterns lend some support to explanations focusing on the role of gender role socialization, and teachers' gendered and racialized expectations and treatment of students. In addition, findings of an analysis of trends in female-headed households over the same period suggest that part of the growing female advantage may be due to changing family formation patterns and a differential negative effect for boys of growing up without a father present. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mexican American population has the lowest level of educational attainment among racial/ethnic groups in the United States. In fact that the dropout rate of Mexican Americans has not changed much over the last 25 years. While there has been an increase of research seeking to understand and alleviate the dropout rate of Mexican Americans, relatively little research has been conducted at the aggregate level. This study draws on various theoretical perspectives to explain variations in the dropout rate of native-born Mexican American youth across geographic areas of the United States. Data from the 2000 5% Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) are used to conduct the analysis based on 523 Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs). The results provide support for the five hypotheses. In particular, the dropout rate among native-born Mexican American youth is positively associated with the dropout rate of native-born adults and the rate of female headship, and negatively related to the hourly wage of high school graduates, the unemployment rate, and the relative size of the Mexican-origin population. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the results for the formation of policies and programs to reduce the dropout rate of Mexican American youth. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers race/ethnic differences in the formation of math trajectories within high school separately by gender, to examine the extent to which experiences and outcomes are clearly delineated by race/ethnicity, or gender, or both. The analyses utilize data from the new Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement study (AHAA), the high school transcript study that is a component of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth). The results indicate that compared to their white male peers, African American and Latino males receive less of a benefit from beginning high school in Algebra I, in terms of the amount of advanced math they take by the end of high school. Yet minority girls receive the same positive returns to taking Algebra I as their female peers. Additionally, while minority male students have lower grades, this does not explain nor diminish the lower returns they receive to early placement. The results underscore some progress on behalf of minority females, while at the same time highlighting the particular academic disadvantages suffered by minority males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates patterns of school choice within the system of Chicago Public High Schools. Much of the literature on school choice has focused on the question "who choose?". Surprisingly, very little systematic attention has been given to understanding the conditions under which an individual chooses to opt out of or stay in a particular school. This project explores how neighborhood and school characteristics may shape the decision to stay in or leave a neighborhood high school. Particular attention is paid to understanding the conditions which give rise to choice of enrollment in a career academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of several country-level educational policies and practices on both the students` average reading achievement and the social distribution of achievement within countries. Data come the 2000 administration of PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). They include observations from 212,880 15-year-old students attending 8,038 secondary schools, which are located in 39 countries. We analyze these data with three-level Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM), with students nested in schools, which are nested within countries. Results focus on the role played by two country-level educational policies in influencing national average achievement: (1) retention/repetition and (2) the mix of students in schools based on socioeconomic status (SES mix). Our results also focus on how national policies related to vocational education influence the social distribution of achievement between schools within countries. Implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the efforts of an alternative, Christian high school to re-engage dropouts by building caring, solidary relationships between teachers and students. Ethnographic data and in-depth interviews are employed to elucidate how these personalistic attachments influenced students’ academic performance, attitudes toward school, and motivation to continue their education. The tensions engendered by the school’s personalistic orientation are also discussed, and particular attention is given to the disparate meanings teachers and students attach to their affectively-charged relationships, the inherent conflict between teachers’ authority and friendship roles, and the recurring problem of efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the curriculum to which students? are exposed in their freshmen math classes, over and above the type of course taken, is related to their academic attainment by the end of high school. The analyses use the new transcript and textbook components for the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a nationally representative, multi-cohort longitudinal study of high school students during the 1990s. Preliminary analyses of these data indicate a strong relationship, independent of the type of course freshmen took, between the breadth and depth of the curriculum to which they are exposed and how far they progress in mathematics by the end of high school. These early experiences in math also shape their exposure to science during high school and their likelihood of graduating. The results suggest that variation in the quality of curriculum in courses is an important and mostly untapped, dimension of students? academic experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite having closed the gap with Asians and whites with regards to accessing algebra I and geometry, Latinos graduate from high school without taking advanced math courses such as algebra II, trigonometry, pre-calculus and calculus in similar proportions. Such underrepresentation in advanced math curriculum has serious implications for Latinos’ postsecondary opportunities as well as careers in math and science-based fields. This paper explores access to advanced math courses among 1992 Latino high school graduates. More specifically, this study builds upon theoretical debates within the sociology of education literature by considering several independent variables that have not been included in traditional quantitative models of tracking and coursework completion. Using the National Longitudinal Education Survey of 1988, I consider four factors that may explain Latino underrepresentation in advanced math courses: 1) a late start in taking gate keeping math courses such as algebra I and geometry, 2) grades earned in geometry, 3) lack of knowledge regarding the importance of advanced math for college bound students and 4) relationships with teachers. The results show that Latinos get a late start at taking gate keeping math courses such as algebra I and geometry. As ninth graders, they were more likely to take pre-algebra, basic, or vocational math courses compared to white students. In addition, both the grade-level students were at when they took geometry and the grades they earned in geometry explain a significant amount of the variance in advanced math coursetaking between Latinos and whites. The results of this study suggest Latinos face significant disadvantages during the transition from middle to high school. In turn, such disadvantage impacts prospects for taking advanced math courses before graduating from high school. These findings call into question the equality of opportunities for learning among students of different racial-ethnic groups with similar social and academic backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper questions the way in which students? academic success in science is typically measured by considering school offerings and student enrollment patterns in advanced science classes in addition to Physics. Using the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress ‘s (NAEP) High School Transcript Study (HSTS), analyses reveal substantial variation between schools in the advanced science courses offered. In schools that offer Biology II courses, female and Hispanic students are comparatively more likely to take this course. Analyses suggest that Biology II does not pull girls out of physics, but attracts females who may otherwise not take advanced science. Alternatively, Hispanic students appear to opt out of Physics when Biology II is available. Finally, when considering Physics and Biology II together, a gender gap in advanced science course-taking disappears, while racial disparities remain. In summary, by focusing more broadly on school offerings and student enrollments in high school science, and acknowledging the increasing relevance of the biological sciences in contemporary society, the alternative science choices of many female and minority students are highlighted. The results presented here also demonstrate that how researchers and policymakers choose to define educational inequality has implications for the conclusions reached about the extent of inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses concerns that have been recently raised about the ability of any of a variety of conventional estimators to generate unbiased estimates of the private returns to education in the presence non-random measurement error. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, I examine the effects of measurement error by comparing estimates based on the entire sample to estimates based on the subset of respondents whose self-reports are confirmed by their postsecondary transcripts. I find no evidence of downward bias due to misreporting of education for postsecondary education up to the Bachelor?s degree, but there is evidence of downward bias for graduate degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to compare the educational outcomes of children of immigrants in France and in the US to understand the educational inequalities and opportunities for social mobility for the second generation in both countries. The comparison is focused on children from two groups: North Africans in France and Mexicans in the US. By using two longitudinal datasets, the French Educational Panel Survey and Add Health, we examine aspirations, expectations and attainment in secondary education in the two contexts. We explore in particular the role of parental education on attainment. We also utilize in-depth interviews to understand their educational experiences and their impact on their perceptions of social mobility. Immigrant families have high educational aspirations in both contexts. North Africans express however higher aspirations than native French with similar background, while there are no differences between second-generation Mexicans and the Majority group. Second generation children are disadvantaged in school in both countries: they are more likely to drop out and less likely to graduate from high school, but most of the disadvantages are related to their social background. Net of social background, North African second generation are more likely to get the French high school diploma. This success is relative insofar as they receive the technological baccalauréat, which is less valued and provides a less certain route to higher education. This comparison shows some convergence on ethnic inequalities in education, despite institutional differences. However, these differences create different school processes and experiences that lead to different views on social mobility [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Separating students for instruction and teaching them different things, or "tracking," is widespread across industrialized countries' secondary school systems. But there is much variation in these practices cross-nationally. They go by many different names and can consist of anything from rigid occupational streams located in separate school buildings to very flexible subject-by-subject grouping within schools. A large body of past research has compared the effects of countries' tracking systems on inequality in achievement (Rosenbaum 1976; Oakes 1985; Kerckhoff 1986; Gamoran and Mare 1989; Slavin 1990; Pallas and al. 1994; Lucas 1999; Buchmann and Dalton 2002; Schuetz, Ursprung et al. 2005; Hanushek and Woessmann 2006; Vandenberghe 2006; Waldinger 2006). This paper attempts to improve upon prior comparative tracking research both theoretically and methodologically, by both more explicitly hypothesizing and testing the relative importance of different mechanisms through which tracking may affect achievement inequality, and by using those mechanisms to construct improved measures of tracking that are more cross-nationally comparable than those of previous studies. I develop a conceptual framework hypothesizing that tracking practices may affect achievement inequality through three mechanisms: assignment, separation, and differences in treatments; use these concepts to construct country-level measures of tracking practices; and analyze the relationship between these measures and country-level achievement inequality. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using in-depth interviews, with thirty working class and poor, minority adolescents, students were asked to describe their daily interactions and perceptions of peers in a neighborhood high school in NYC over two years. Among the key findings, students consistently expressed their distrust of "bad kids" who they blamed for many of the school's problems. Three themes based on students lived experiences are described: (1) A neighborhood school with a stigmatized reputation for low academic achievement housed students who displayed anti-academic behavior; (2) Students developed normative behavior and informal rules to avoid hostile interactions with peers; (3) Perceptions of "bad kids" was racialized and stereotyped, constructing the Asian American model minority as high academic achievers, and framing the African American and Latino students as the "bad kids". The paper develops the idea of collective dis-identification, a reverse process from collective identity, where students learned to disconnect from their peers by racially and ethnically segregating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems in high-poverty urban schools are well known. Achievement is low, and failure is high. From an outsider's perspective, a low-performing urban high school is not a pleasant place to be. Many who seek to help students in these schools are well aware of these circumstances. It is taken for granted that students are poor and the school is deficient. But what do students think? Is the school abnormal through their eyes? This paper analyzes the results of a survey given to both high and low performing students in a high-poverty urban high school. By all measures, the school is the lowest performing but, by and large, students view it as normal. Neither high nor low performing students believe that other schools are of higher quality, and also perceive the student body as normal. In contrast, a group of college students who mentor at the school report that the school is far inferior and the student body far different than other schools. The impact and possible solutions to this perception gap are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popularity is measured in multiple ways. Psychologists often use cumulative measures of affect, as in "liked most" nominations, while sociologists often ask students to nominate the popular crowd. Network researchers typically use number of friends or centrality in a friendship network as a proxy. Few studies have compared multiple methods. This paper considers the network positions of school elites, as indicated by high school yearbooks. Elites are strongly clustered in a few cliques, but are no more central than average students. Academic achievement has a weak, positive, indirect effect elite status. Sports participation was strongly related to elite status, and males who do not play sports are unlikely to be elites. Students who placed a high value on being popular are more likely to become so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research shows that increased levels of college information are associated with higher college aspirations and rates of attendance. However, we know little about how race and social class influence access to college information among African Americans, who are disadvantaged in having accurate information compared to whites. This paper examines how the race and social class background of African American high school students shape how these students and their families gain information on college from teachers, counselors, and other sources. I use ethnographic methods, interviews, and observations at a public high school in California to study ninth- and eleventh-grade African American students and their parents, teachers, and counselors over the course of two school years. I find that social class shapes levels of comfort and contact with teachers and counselors, which influences access to quality and personalized college information from school professionals. Race also complicates how African American students gain college information from school professionals, especially among working-class students, because of a heightened awareness of racial stereotypes toward the black community and increased levels of distrust for school professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parents, friends, high school teachers and guidance counselors, college professors, academic advisors, and college orientation programs/first-year seminars play a role in facilitating students' transition from high school to college. This paper assesses the perceived helpfulness of these variables in the transition experience of college students at a medium-sized state university in the Southeast. There were significant gender differences in the reported helpfulness of parents, friends, high school counselors, high school teachers, and the first-year seminar. There were also significant differences by race in the perceived helpfulness of parents, friends, high school counselors, and SOAR (an orientation program). Students' perceptions of their parents' and friends' level of helpfulness may be exaggerated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine whether and how individual-level friendship networks affect high school students' academic outcomes, and distinguish the effects of different levels and aspects of the friendship characteristics. Using nationally representative panel data from the restricted data set of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), the authors find: (1) the relationship between school-level racial composition and achievement levels and racial/ethnic differences in academic outcomes is mediated through the racial heterogeneity and average GPA of students' best friends; (2) the achievement levels of students' best friends have significantly positive effects on the academic outcomes of students of all races/ethnicities; and (3) African American and Hispanic students benefit more than Whites from a diverse racial composition in their friendship networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically low levels of educational attainment among children of Mexican-descent continue to be a concern as academic achievement remains a key indicator of integration into the American mainstream. Emphasis on the "Culture versus Structure" debate has been applied in understanding the educational handicap experienced by many Latino subgroups. Testing whether dropping out is an effect of structural or cultural conditions, this paper analyzes data from the San Diego portion of the CILS study (Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study) to examine whether second generation Mexicans living among coethnics are more likely to drop out of high school than their coethnic counterparts who do not live in concentrated neighborhoods. Findings show that descriptively, living in a Mexican neighborhood makes one more likely to drop out of high school than coethnics who do not live in such neighborhoods. However, individual achievement, family background and school composition are key factors in negating the negative effects of living in a highly concentrated Mexican and Spanish speaking neighborhood. Findings reveal that structural conditions rather than cultural proclivities are greater indicators of the low levels of educational attainment demonstrated by Mexican-descent students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A voluminous literature exists regarding school effects on student achievement. Despite the popular assumption that children's learning environment helps to shape their educational outcomes, relatively little research has specifically addressed this issue. Using a nationally representative sample of high schools and students, this paper examines the relationship between objective measures of school quality and student achievement. Findings suggest that school quality has a small, positive effect on students' standardized math scores net of traditional predictors of achievement, including sociodemographic background, educational and occupational aspirations, and school effort. Furthermore, the school quality-achievement relationship becomes statistically insignificant only after including a lagged measure of achievement in the model. The policy implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long-standing insight in social sciences holds that social values affect individuals' entry into entrepreneurship. This paper presents the first systematic empirical examination of how the legitimation of entrepreneurship at societal level dynamically shapes the entrepreneurial entry of individuals from different social strata. Analyzing a nationally representative life history data of the citizens of the People's Republic of China from 1978 to 1996, we find that high-status individuals (cadres and college-educated) are less likely to become private entrepreneurs before the field achieves full-fledged legitimacy, but they are faster in becoming private entrepreneurs as the field becomes more legitimate. We find that the entrepreneurial entry of individuals in regions with local entrepreneurial culture is less influenced by the regulative or cognitive legitimation processes at national level. Moreover, we find that cadres' entry into private entrepreneurship is amplified only by the regulative legitimation process at national level; Junior and senior high school graduates' entry into private entrepreneurship is amplified only by local entrepreneurial culture; college graduates' entry into the field is amplified by both the regulative and cognitive legitimation processes at national level and local entrepreneurial culture. The implications of the findings for entrepreneurship, neoinstitutional theory, and the market transition literature are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of high school students are involved in "dual enrollment" programs of one form or another, ranging from programs in which high school students do work to earn college credit (e.g., through Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate programs) to actual enrollment in college courses prior to high school graduation. At the same time, it is clear that large numbers of students who are formally enrolled in post-secondary institutions are doing secondary school-level work (e.g., through high school completion programs, GED programs, or remedial coursework). In the former case, secondary school students are essentially doing post-secondary level work. In the latter case, post-secondary school students are essentially doing secondary level work. However, researchers who analyze the transition to post-secondary schooling almost universally treat secondary and post-secondary schooling as discrete, non-overlapping entities. We pursue three objectives in this paper. First, we quantify the degree of "blurriness" in the boundary between secondary and post-secondary education. What fraction of secondary school students is essentially doing post-secondary school work? What fraction of post-secondary school students is essentially doing secondary school work? Second, we describe inequalities by race/ethnicity, sex, and socioeconomic circumstances in the "blurriness" of the boundary between secondary and post-secondary schooling. Third, we compare models of the transition to post-secondary schooling that view that transition as discrete and non-overlapping to those that view that transition as gradual and nuanced. To do so we analyses data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 and from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on inequality in education typically treats the concept of school achievement as a uniformly understood measurement of academic performance. This assumption masks an important aspect of educational assessment: how students themselves make sense of the grades which they receive. Research on "school resistance" or "oppositional peer cultures" approaches this crucial question of how students perceive their grades, but it is limited to studies of the intersection between race/ethnicity and school or class status and school. Students who do not hold an "oppositional" attitude towards school also are confronted with the grades they receive. My paper draws on interview data with 56 high school students in three diverse school contexts to interrogate what grades mean to them, and how their grades inform these students' sense of self. I find that students attach moral weight to grades, and that the parameters of that morality differ at each school. Grades' moral weight is associated with a sense of caring about school, and exerting effort in one's schoolwork. This creates an identity dilemma for students who earn less-than-best grades. Students tend to resolve this dilemma in two ways: conceding that they have not tried their bestâ?”which comes with a moral penalty; or conceding that they must not be quite smart enough to earn best grades. Neither is an easy conclusion for students, and again the understandings differ at each school, nonetheless, students who care about school and feel like they try hard must make sense of receiving less-than-best grades. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the dominant political self-conceptions in American society is "Bootstrap Theory," the notion that individuals are largely responsible for their stratification outcomes and achievements, and that hard work is the proper route to success. By opposition, the bulk of sociological stratification research has focused on structural impediments to self-determinism. Examining reading achievement scores in secondary school using the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS 88) this paper tests a) Whether Bootstraps Theory holds in this arena, and b) Whether a view combining the predictions of Bootstraps Theory and traditional sociological research - basically, effort within context - applies. Results suggest that Bootstraps theory does not hold on average, and that the combined view does apply, but with limited predictive validity. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the relationships among a number of factors predictive of attainment of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate degree. These include time-to-degree, academic achievement, and employment. Participants in the study include 16,705 members of the 1996-97 Florida high school graduating cohort. Besides examining the attainment of a STEM degree, our analyses focused on the outcome for two fields within the STEM groupingâ?”Engineering and Biology. The results suggest that women are less likely than men to attain STEM degree in general and Engineering in particular but more likely to attain a Biology degree. A student's ethnicity/race matters such that Asians are twice as likely to attain and Blacks are one and half times to attain a STEM degree. The longer the time students spend pursuing the BA, the higher the odds that they will attain a STEM degree in general and an engineering degree in particular but the lower the odds that they will attain a Biology degree. Students with higher high school GPA scores are almost five times likely to attain STEM degree and twice as likely to attain an Engineering degree. There is no evidence that the number of quarters student work while in high school impact STEM degree attainment. There not enough evidence supporting a relationship between average annual salary earned while in high school and attainment of a STEM or an Engineering degree. The relationship between annual salary earned while in college and STEM, Engineering or Biology degree attainments are mixed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze data from the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS) to update our understanding of sector differences in high school achievement. We found that students in Catholic and private, non-Catholic schools enjoy greater math gains from tenth to twelfth grade than comparable public school students. Race-ethnicity and SES had the same relationship with math achievement in both public and private schools. Private school students took more academic courses in math than public school students, even after controlling for family background and prior achievement. These differences in course taking accounted for much of the public private difference in achievement gains. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disorderly school climates exist in schools where there is a general sense of disciplinary chaos and disorganization and where the socially approved authority relationship between students and teachers has broken down. This paper explores how attending a school with high climates of disorder may affect educational outcomes. It is predicted that after controlling for individual experiences with disorder, students who attend disorderly high schools will be more likely to misbehave and have lower academic achievement than similar students in more orderly schools. Multilevel regression analyses performed on data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (1988) show when students feel unsafe, experience victimization or are disruptive their educational achievement suffers. In addition, the analysis indicates that contextual measures of school disorder are adversely related to grades, test scores, likelihood of graduating, frequency of fighting, and educational commitment. Although, students who go to disorderly schools may be able to escape negative effects of disorder to some degree, such as through measures that minimize personal experience with safety and victimizations, they are unlikely to avoid the negative effects entirely. Going to a disorderly school in itself appears to reduce academic achievement, regardless of personal experience with disorder. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date 11 states have adopted an in-state resident tuition policy that provides in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants and several other states are considering similar legislation. Research has yet to thoroughly examine how these policies affect academic achievement of undocumented youth in K-12. Using the Current Population Survey (CPS), this paper employs a difference in difference model to examine whether in-state resident tuition policies targeting undocumented immigrants reduce the likelihood of dropping out of high school for Mexican foreign-born non-citizens (FBNC), a proxy for undocumented youth. The paper develops an integrated framework that combines economic theory of human capital with demographic theories of immigrant optimism and segmented assimilation to provide insight into how in-state resident tuition policies influence student motivation and achievement at the high school level. Additionally, the paper considers whether the impact of these policies differ by state migration histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses findings from a qualitative case-study of a continuation high school, a public secondary alternative education program for dropout and pushout that are overrepresented by children of color, which posed questions about the role this school served within the city's central school district. The author employs the paradigm of critical race theory in education to analyze the founding historical precepts of alternative schooling, the school experience of youths who attend this continuation high school, and the process of student enrollment. Utilizing the critical race theory concept of Whiteness as property, specifically the property functions of 1) the rights to use and enjoyment; and 2) the absolute right to exclude, the author found that the role of this school was to effectively maintain and protect Whiteness as property through the systematic removal of nonwhite students from the districts mainstream high school into a substandard alternative school lacking in material and intellectual resources. Furthermore, this paper reveals how teachers, counselors, and administrative staff at the mainstream and continuation high schools alike drew upon the racial ideology of merit and hegemonic stories to rationalize the overrepresentation of nonwhite youths at the study school and to deracialize the student referral process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Social Capital Benchmark survey, this paper examines the effects of local racial diversity and on the likelihood that respondents will report having interracial friendship. Then, we examine the impact of reporting having a friend or friends from one or more different racial categories on the respondents reported level of generalized trust. Most research on interracial contact addresses how racial demographics shape racial attitudes and or focuses primarily on school settings. In this paper, we focus on a broader social psychological phenomenon--generalized trust. We also focus on an aspect of the life course, unlike high school or college, which is experienced by almost everyone throughout their lives, i.e., residential neighborhood settings. Consistent with previous research, we find that while white respondents report higher levels of generalized trust than respondents of color, local-level racial diversity has a negative impact on white respondents' sense of generalized trust. For all other groups, local-level diversity has a positive impact on generalized trust. Racial heterogeneity has a positive effect on the likelihood of reporting interracial friendships, except among black respondents. Generally, those who report having friends from at least one dissimilar racial category report a slightly higher level of generalized trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) programs on High School Graduation Rates. The 1990's witnessed a rapid increase in JROTC programs in US high schools as a method to combat gang violence, drug use, dropout rates and to increase graduation rates. Little prior evidence has been presented on the effectiveness of JROTC programs to meet these goals. Using National Center for Education Statistics data combined with JROTC program data and US Census Data this paper profiles current JROTC programs and test the impact of program participation on graduation rates. Using a sample of schools districts with one high school we find that schools with JROTC programs have lower graduation rates than non participants. To control of possible selection bias, we consider a subsample of only single high school districts with JROTC programs and find that length of program participation does not increase graduation rates. While the results cannot be generalized to all high schools, it does draw into question the effectiveness of JROTC programs to increase graduation rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stereotype threat Theory suggests that the social consequences of academic distinction in advanced quantitative areas (such as math and the physical sciences) may promote the under representation of female students in advanced quantitative academic courses. The hypotheses that women will be underrepresented in advanced quantitative (math and physical science) courses and men will be underrepresented in advanced verbal/writing intensive (English, foreign language and social science) courses are tested using academic performance and enrollment data for high school students in a "Student/Parent Informed Choice" (open registration) school district. Results show, not only an overrepresentation of female students in English, foreign language and social science courses compared to their proportion of the student body, but also their overrepresentation in math and physical science courses. More surprisingly, the findings indicate an across the board overrepresentation of female students (compared to male students) in advanced courses-quantitative or otherwise--compared to their proportion of high-performing students. While subsequent research is needed to confirm these results, the findings call into question the prevailing general expectation that women will continue to be underrepresented in math and courses of the physical sciences. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the high school and post-high school educational pathways of over 91,000 1996-97 Florida public high school graduates. We construct high school course-taking and achievement Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) pathways using mathematics and science courses and use these pathways to predict future college and university enrollment and non-STEM and STEM degree attainment.High School course-taking and achievement are key factors in enrollment and employment trajectories in the first two years after high school and enrollment through 2004. Students who achieved a C or above in Calculus and Physics while in high school are on a STEM pathway and are more likely than lower achieving students to enroll in a four-year university, obtain a bachelor's degree, and are more likely to obtain a STEM degree in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Agricultural Sciences, Engineering, Mathematics, or Computer Sciences major.Students who achieved a C or above in courses at or above the Algebra II and Chemistry levels are on a college pathway out of high school have higher degree attainment than borderline pathway students who only completed Algebra II or Chemistry, but both college and borderline students had favorable enrollment outcomes.Students who did not successfully complete Algebra II or Chemistry generally went into the workforce or attended community college after high school. Few students enrolled in a university or out of state institution and very few obtained a bachelor's degree. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research shows that students who concentrate on academic coursework during high school are advantaged in terms of cognitive skills (test scores) and educational attainment (college completion). However, this research is plagued by two methodological problems: 1) there are multiple measures of coursework available in large-scale survey datasets yet little empirical evidence as to which measure best captures underlying concepts, and 2) most analyses of the effects of academic coursework fail to adequately control for selection bias to rule out whether pre-existing differences between academic concentrators and other students are actually driving results. This study addresses these limitations using National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS) transcript data and counterfactual models. We isolate the causal effects of a variety of measures of academic coursework on 12th grade test scores and the probability of completing a BA. We find that when two groups of teens who were identical in 8th grade on observed factors experience different high school exposure to academic curriculum, those in academic tracks are more likely to complete a Bachelor's degree but do not have significant improvement in test scores. Academic math and English coursework and the public release NELS transcript measure of academic coursework have the most pronounced causal influence on BA completion. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]