Long-Term Correlates of Racially Diverse Schooling: Education, Wealth, and Social Engagement in Later Life

Abstract

Racially diverse educational settings yield various benefits according to past research. However, researchers have not fully considered how longlasting the benefits are and whether they exist for adults who attended school prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We analyze a national sample of older adults born between 1931 and 1953 to test for an association between attending a race discordant school in early life and socioeconomic status and social engagement in later life. We use OLS regression and propensity adjusted regression to account for early life factors that select children into race discordant schools. Findings indicate that race discordant schooling is associated with long-term educational benefits for Hispanic adults and greater wealth for Black adults at age 65. Attending a race discordant school was not correlated with socioeconomic outcomes in later life for Whites. Additionally, Black and White older adults who attended discordant schools reported higher levels of social engagement at age 65. To the extent our models successfully account for selection, early exposure to race discordant schools yielded some later-life benefits to all racial/ethnic groups and reduced racial/ethnic inequalities among older adults, despite growing up in a time of entrenched institutional racism and significant White opposition to school integration.