Family Background, School Type, and College Attendance: A Conjoint System of Cultural Capital Transmission

Abstract

Using the national High School and Beyond (HSB) data set and a national sample of elite private boarding school adolescents, this article compares public, Catholic, elite boarding, and other elite private schools with respect to characteristics of the families whose children attend; features of access and control; educational, teacher, and pedagogical characteristics; and college aspirations and attendance patterns of their graduates. The college attendance patterns of adolescents attending different types of schools are then analyzed in more detail. Even when they are compared with exceptional ability HSB adolescents of high social backgrounds, elite boarding school students have considerably higher probabilities of at-tending highly selective colleges or universities. With statistical controls of family backgrounds and student achievement, the HSB and elite boarding school adolescents are equally likely to pursue post-secondary education and almost equally likely to attend I-year colleges. However, elit...