Southworth, Stephanie, & Mickelson, Roslyn A.
Researchers: Roslyn A. MickelsonStephanie Southworth
University Affiliation: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Email: rmicklsn@uncc.edu
Research Question:
How organizational features of high schools interact with students' ascriptive characteristics to shape opportunities to learn.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Social Forces
Journal Entry: Vol. 86, No. 2, pp. 497-523
Year: 2007
Findings:
- School racial composition has significant effects on the track placement of different race-gender cohorts, and that schools’ racial compositions interact with students’ ascriptive characteristics in these processes.
- Net of prior achievement, track placements are influenced by individual and family characteristics in these processes.
- Students who attend racially diverse or white schools are more likely to be taught by qualified teachers, to experience a rigorous academic climate, to have peers who expect to attend college, and to have adequate access to material resources than students in segregated minority schools. Conversely, students who attend segregated minority schools are likely to have fewer qualified teachers, weaker academic climates, more poor non-English speaking and homeless peers, fewer gifted classmates and fewer options to enroll in college preparatory courses than peers at racially balanced schools.
- Racially balanced schools are more inclusive and thus they offer greater equality of educational opportunity for students from all backgrounds.
- Tracking continues to reflect enduring patterns of social inequality in American society.