Researchers who examine the link between high school achievement and educational outcomes include measures of achievement that conflate high school effects with achievement effects established prior to high school. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study, this article disaggregates achievement into achievement prior to high school (in the eighth grade) and changes in achievement during high school. The authors find that the prestige of the colleges that students attend is largely solidified by the time students enter high school. They also find that among high socioeconomic status (SES) students, lower achievers can enhance the prestige of the colleges they will attend by moving up the achievement distribution during high school. However, even if their gains are well above average, the prestige of the colleges they are predicted to attend will not surpass students who enter high school at the top or middle of the eighth-grade achievement distribution. These findings are similar for low-SES students. In contrast, the effects of achievement for middle-SES students are largely solidified by high school.
Adelman, C. ( 1999). Answers in the tool box, academic intensity, attendance patterns, and bachelor’s degree attainment. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Available from http://www.2.ed.gov/pubs
2.
Adelman, C. ( 2004). The tool box revisited, paths to degree completion from high school through college. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Available from http://www.2.ed.gov/pubs
3.
Alexander, K., & Cook, M. ( 1982). Curricula and coursework: A surprise ending to a familiar story American Sociological Review, 47, 626-640.
4.
Alexander, K., Cook, M., & McDill, E. (1978). Curriculum tracking and educational stratification: Some further evidence. American Sociological Review, 43, 47-66.
5.
Alexander, K., & Eckland, B.K. ( 1977). High school context and college selectivity: Institutional constraints in educational stratification. Social Forces, 56, 166-188.
6.
Attewell, P. ( 2001). The winner-take-all high school, organizational adaptations to educational stratification. Sociology of Education, 74, 267-295.
7.
Barrington, B.L., & Hendricks, B. ( 1989). Differentiating characteristics of high school graduates, dropouts, and nongraduates. Journal of Educational Research , 82, 309-319.
8.
Barron’s Educational Series. (1992). Profiles of American colleges: Description of the colleges (19th ed.). Hauppauge, NY: Author.
9.
Black, D.A., & Smith, J. ( 2004). How robust is the evidence on the effects of college quality? Evidence from matching. Journal of Econometrics, 121, 99-124.
10.
Blau, J.R., Moller, S., & Jones, L.V. ( 2003). Why test? Talent loss and enrollment loss. Social Science Research, 33, 409-434.
11.
Brand, J.E., & Halaby, C.N. ( 2006). Regression and matching estimates of the effects of elite college attendance on educational and career achievement. Social Science Research, 35, 749-770.
12.
Brewer, D.J., Eide, E., & Ehrenberg, R.G. (1999). Does it pay to attend an elite private college? Cross-cohort evidence on the effect of college type on earnings. Journal of Human Resources, 34, 104-123.
13.
Bronstein, P., Ginsburg, G., & Herrera, I. ( 2005). Parental predictors of motivational orientation in early adolescence: A longitudinal study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence , 34, 559-575.
14.
Bryk, A., & Raudenbush, S.W. (1992). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods. Newbury Park, CA : Sage.
15.
Cabrera, A.F., & La Nasa, S.M. ( 2001). On the path to college: Three critical tasks facing America’s disadvantaged. Research in Higher Education, 42, 119-149.
16.
Cameron, S., & Heckman, J. ( 2001). The dynamics of educational attainment for Black, Hispanics, and White males. Journal of Political Economy, 109, 455-499.
17.
Charles, C.Z., Roscigno,V. J., & Torres, K.C. ( 2007). Racial inequality and college attendance: The mediating role of parental investment. Social Science Research, 36, 329-352.
18.
Chen, Z., & Kaplan, H.B. ( 2003). School failure in early adolescence and status attainment in middle adulthood: A longitudinal study. Sociology of Education , 76, 110-127.
19.
Clark, B.R. ( 1983). The higher education system. Berkeley : University of California Press.
20.
Conley, D. ( 2001). Capital for college: Parental assets and postsecondary schooling. Sociology of Education, 74, 59-72.
21.
Cordero-Guzman, H.R. ( 2001). Cognitive skills, test scores, and social stratification: The role of family and school-level resources on racial/ethnic differences in scores on standardized tests (AFQT). Review of Black Political Economy, 28, 31-72.
22.
Curtin, T.R., Ingels, S.J., Wu, S., & Heuer, R. ( 2002). National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988: Base-year to fourth follow-up data file user’s manual (NCES 2002-323). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.
23.
Dale, S.B., & Krueger, A.B. ( 2002). Estimating the payoff to attending a more selective college: An application on observables and unobservables. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117, 1491-1527.
24.
Dauber, S.L., Alexander, K.L., & Entwisle, D. ( 1996). Tracking and transitions through the middle grades: Channeling educational trajectories. Sociology of Education, 69, 290-307.
25.
Davies, S., & Guppy, N. ( 1997). Fields of study, college selectivity, and student inequalities in higher education. Social Forces, 75, 1417-1438.
26.
Dorans, C.F., L.M. Pommerich, & W.M. Houston. (1997). Concordance between ACT assessment and recentered SAT I sum scores. College and University, 73, 24-31.
27.
Eisner, E., & Tikoff, V. ( 2000). Preparing your child for college: A resource book for parents. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
28.
Ellwood, D.T., & Kane, T. ( 2000). Who is getting a college education? Family background and the growing gaps in education. In S. Danziger & J. Waldfogel (Eds.), Securing the future: Investing in children from birth to college. New York: Ford Foundation Series on Asset Building .
29.
Ensminger, M.E., & Slusarcick, A.L. (1992). Paths to high school graduation or dropout, a longitudinal study of a first-grade cohort. Sociology of Education, 65, 95-113.
30.
Espenshade, T., Hale, L., & Chung, C.Y. ( 2005). The frog pond revisited: High school academic context, class rank, and elite college admission. Sociology of Education , 78, 269-293.
31.
Finn, J.D. ( 1989). Withdrawing from school. Review of Educational Research, 59, 117-142.
32.
Gamoran, A. ( 1992). The variable effects of high school tracking. American Sociological Review, 57, 812-828.
33.
Granovetter, M.S. ( 1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78, 1360-1380.
34.
Hallinan, M.T. ( 1992). The organization of students for instruction in the middle school. Sociology of Education, 65, 114-127.
35.
Hallinan, M.T. ( 1994a). School differences in tracking effects on achievement . Social Forces, 72, 799-820.
36.
Hallinan, M.T. ( 1994b). Tracking: From theory to practice. Sociology of Education, 67, 79-91.
37.
Hallinan, M.T., & Sorensen, A.B. (1983). The formation and stability of instructional groups. American Sociological Review, 48, 838-851.
38.
Hearn, J. ( 1991). Academic and nonacademic influences on the college destinations of 1980 high school graduates. Sociology of Education, 64, 158-171.
39.
Heckman, J.J. ( 1979). Sample selection bias as a specification error. Econometrica, 47, 153-162.
40.
James, E., Alsalam, N., Contay, J.C., & To, D. ( 1989). College quality and future earnings: Where should you send your child to college? American Economic Review, 79, 247-252.
41.
Kanter, R.M. ( 1977). Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic Books.
42.
Kaplan, H.B. ( 1996). Psychological stress from the perspective of self-theory . In H. B. Kaplan (Ed.), Psychosocial stress from the perspectives of self, theory, life course, and methods (pp. 175-244). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
43.
Karabel, J., & Astin, A.W. ( 1975). Social class, academic ability, and college "quality."Social Forces, 53, 381-398.
44.
Karen, D. ( 1991). The politics of class, race, and gender access to higher education in the United States, 1960-1986. American Journal of Education, 99, 208-237.
45.
Karen, D. ( 2002). Changes in access to higher education in the United States, 1980-1992. Sociology of Education, 75, 191-210.
46.
Kim, D.H., & Schneider, B. ( 2005). Social capital in action: Alignment of parental support in adolescents’ transition to postsecondary education. Social Forces, 84, 1181-1206.
47.
King, J.E. ( 1996). The decision to go to college: Attitudes and experiences associated with college attendance among low-income students. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.
48.
Lareau, A. ( 2002). Invisible inequality: Social class and childrearing in Black families and White families. American Sociological Review , 67, 747-776.
49.
Light, A., & Strayer, W. ( 2000). Determinants of college completion: School quality or student ability? Journal of Human Resources, 35, 299-332.
50.
Mickelson, R. ( 2001). Subverting Swann: First- and second-generation segregation in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. American Educational Research Journal, 38, 215-252.
51.
Moller, S., Stearns, E., Blau, J.R., & Land, K.C. ( 2006). Smooth and rough roads to academic achievement: Retention and race/class disparities in high school. Social Science Research, 35, 157-180.
52.
Monks, J. ( 2000). The returns to individual and college characteristics evidence from the national longitudinal survey of youth. Economics of Education Review, 19, 279-289.
53.
National Center for Education Statistics. ( 2002). Coming of age in the 1990s: The eighth-grade class of 1988 12 years later (Statistical Analysis Report). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002321
54.
Oakes, J. ( 1985). Keeping track: How schools structure inequality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
55.
Rogers, W.H. ( 1993). Regression standard errors in clustered samples. Stata Technical Bulletin, 13, 19-23.
56.
Seymour, S., & Lunde, T. ( 1991). Features of educational attainment and job promotion prospects. American Journal of Sociology, 97, 689-720.
57.
Stevenson, D., Schiller, K.S., & Schneider, B. ( 1994). Sequences of opportunities for learning. Sociology of Education, 67, 184-198.
58.
Sui-Chu, E.H., & Willms, J.D. ( 1996). Effects of parental involvement on eighth-grade achievement . Sociology of Education, 69, 126-141.
59.
Thomas, S.L. ( 2000). Deferred costs and economic returns to college major: Quality, and performance. Research in Higher Education, 41, 281-313.
60.
Trusheim, D., & Crouse, J. ( 1981). Effects of college prestige on men’s occupational status and income. Research in Higher Education, 14, 283-303.
61.
Turley, R.N.L., Santos, M., & Ceja, C. ( 2007). Social origin and college opportunity expectations across cohorts. Social Science Research, 36, 1200-1218.
62.
U.S. Department of Education. (2002). Digest of education statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
63.
Vanfossen, B.E., Jones, J.D., & Spade, J.Z. ( 1987). Curriculum tracking and status maintenance. Sociology of Education, 60, 104-122.
