Abstract
Unique data containing coursework-mastery test scores for all middle school students in a large urban school district are employed to test the narrowly defined meritocratic hypothesis that course-grade differentials for gender, ethnicity, and poverty groups are accounted for by the differential coursework mastery of these groups. A broadly defined meritocratic hypothesis is also tested by a model which includes measures of student absenteeism as well as “frog pond” and “bad school” contextual effects. Both the narrowly and broadly defined meritocratic hypotheses are rejected. With coursework mastery and the other variables held constant it is found that girls receive higher course grades than boys, Asians receive higher course grades than Anglos, and nonpoor youths receive higher course grades than poor youths. Black/Anglo and Hispanic/Anglo differentials are mixed. Implications are drawn for future studies of the educational stratification process.
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