- Black and Hispanic students were associated with the highest average exposure to school violence.
- Attending a high school that had increased exposure to school violence had a significant negative effect on first-year grades.
- Blacks attended the lowest quality schools in terms of teaching quality. Hispanics attended the lowest quality schools in terms of school infrastructure.
- Whites and Asians attended the highest quality schools.
- Students from higher socioeconomic statuses were more likely to attend better schools with higher quality of teaching and lower prevalence of school violence.
- Black and Hispanic students were associated with significantly lower first-year grades compared to White students.
- Students in the lowest income band were associated with significantly lower grades compared to students in the highest income band.
- Quality of high school infrastructure and the quality of the teaching environment had significant effects for students in the highest income bracket, but no effect on the lower income brackets.
- The quality of the high school infrastructure and exposure to violence at school -two operationalized dimensions of the high school context- affect first year college grades above and beyond pre-college academic achievement and a variety of other background characteristics.
- Results also provide evidence of the conditional nature of these effects, where the high school context reinforces advantages of students with relatively greater economic resources prior to college.
- High school contextual characteristics (violence rates and infrastructure) have a significant influence on college performance.