Aligning Action and Promoting Complementary Ties: School Support in Adolescents\\\' Transition to Postsecondary Education.

Assisting students in transition to college has become a key institutional function of high school since the majority of high school seniors now go to college. Information about the application process is especially important to college entry because U.S. colleges are not standardized and have localized institutional criteria in the admissions process. Since one of the most important benefits of social capital is information, this study asks if high schools with high level of social capital can contribute better to college entry of their students, in particular to the selectivity of college to which their students are admitted. This study defines high school ties with colleges as complementary in that high schools and colleges share the goal but occupy different position in the division of labor for adolescents' transition to postsecondary education. High school's active contact with parents and college for college choice as aligned in that they are directed and specific for the goal of their students' college going. This study investigates the effects of these two variables as school social capital on college entry, in particular on college selectivity net of school's academic standing and socioeconomic composition. Results show that high school ties with colleges contribute to both access to college and competition for selective college controlling for school's academic standing and socioeconomic composition. Active contact with parents and colleges was found to booster the effect of school level academic standing on the selectivity of college to which students are admitted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]