1978 - School Racial Composition and Black College Attendance and Achievement Test Performance

Attribution: Crain, Robert L., & Mahard, Rita
Researchers: Rita MahardRobert L. Crain
University Affiliation: John Hopkins University
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Research Question:
What are the processes by which different methods of desegregation affect different types of students on different kinds of outcomes?
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Sociology of Education
Journal Entry: Vol. 51, No. 2, pp. 81-101
Year: 1978
Findings:
  • Southern Black students graduating from predominantly White high schools are less likely to attend and to survive college.
  • Southern Black achievement is not related to school racial composition.
  • In the North, Black achievement, college attendance and college survival are all higher in predominantly White High schools.
  • There is some evidence of self-selection in the South, but does not adequately explain the northern results.
Keywords: Academic AchievementAfrican AmericanCollegeRacial CompositionSESRegions: NationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: SurveyAnalysis Methods: Regression Sampling Frame:National
Sampling Types: RandomAnalysis Units: SchoolData Types: Quantitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
  • Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of the High School Graduating Class of 1972.
  • NELS is conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
  • Baseline survey done in the spring of 1972, first follow-up in October 1973 and second follow-up in the fall of 1974, and third follow-up was undertaken in the fall of 1976.
  • Data of the district racial composition from the 1972 Directory of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools compiled by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
  • Sample of 484 schools with Black data, 283 in the South and 201 in the North
  • DV: Mean Black achievement test scores, the percentage of Black graduates attending college, and the percentage of Black graduates surviving to the junior year of college.
  • IV: School percentage White, percentage students bused, mean White students in class, district dissimilarity index.
  • Control Variables: School mean Black SES and school district size.
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts