The Effect of Opportunity: Capital as School Resource and College-Related Outcomes for Black and Latinx Students

Abstract

The structural conditions by which Black and Latinx students experience education have created an opportunity gap in the access to equitable educational resources, likely leading to reduced educational outcomes. Attempts to understand how educational resources impact educational outcomes for Black and Latinx students are usually limited because of comparisons of each group to their White peers. Using inverse probability weighting with regression adjustment (IPWRA), we take a critical quantitative approach ( Stage, 2007 ) by conducting within-group analyses, centering the outcomes of Black and Latinx students. Drawing on Bourdieu’s (1986) conceptualization of capital, we estimate causal effects of capital as a school resource (ITAC) 1 on three college-related outcomes for each group. We find that attending schools with higher ITAC increases college readiness, the likelihood of college enrollment, and degree attainment for Black and Latinx students. Causal estimates suggest that the probability of college enrollment increases by 9% and degree attainment increases by at least 8% for both Black and Latinx students, indicating that access to equitable educational opportunities in high school can affect college-related outcomes. Implications for the recruitment, hiring, and retention of quality teachers in schools that are majority Black and/or Latinx are discussed.