Frost, Michelle B.
Researchers: Michelle B. Frost
University Affiliation: Princeton University
Email: mbfrost@opr.princeton.edu
Research Question:
The association between the racial composition of schools and Texas high school students' educational expectations.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Sociology of Education
Journal Entry: Vol. 80, No. 1, pp. 43-65
Year: 2007
Findings:
- The proportion of Hispanic students in a school is negatively associated with the proportion of students in a school who expect to complete a four-year college degree.
- The effect on college expectations of the school average pass rate on the state standardized tests is positive and significant: A 10 percent increase in a school’s pass rate is associated with an 11 percent increase in the odds of students expecting to graduate with a four-year college degree.
- Higher levels of expectations to graduate with a bachelor’s degree are found in schools with both higher SES and lower proportions of minority students.
- College expectations are positively associated with higher levels of school achieving.
- All other things being equal, college expectations are higher among students who attend schools with greater shares of minority students.
- Once a school’s population is one-fifth Hispanic students and the odds of expecting to obtain a four-year college degree.
- All students in schools with greater proportions of minority students are more likely to expect to graduate with a bachelor’s degree.
- When similar schools are compared, greater proportions of minority students are associated with higher levels of students’ expectation to graduate with a four-year college degree. Specifically, the observed negative relationship between the proportion of minority students and educational expectations is reversed when schools with similar kinds of students, SES, and scholastic achievement are compared.