National Educational Longitudinal Survey Research Articles

Education and the Inequalities of Place

Students living in inner city and rural areas of the United States exhibit lower educational achievement and a higher likelihood of dropping out of high school than do their suburban counterparts. Educational research and policy has tended to neglect these inequalities or, at best, focus on one type but not the other. In this article, we integrate literatures on spatial stratification and educational outcomes, and offer a framework in which resources influential for achievement/attainment are viewed as embedded within, and varying across, inner city, rural and suburban places. We draw from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey and the Common Core of Data, and employ hierarchical linear and hierarchical logistic modeling techniques to test our arguments. Results reveal inner city and rural disadvantages in both family and school resources. These resource inequalities translate into important educational investments at both family and school levels, and help explain deficits in attainment and standardized achievement. We conclude by discussing the implications of our approach and findings for analyses of educational stratification specifically and spatial patterning of inequality more generally.

Does the Age That Children Start Kindergarten Matter? Evidence of Long-Term Educational and Social Outcomes

The appropriate age for students to begin school is an issue of debate for educators, administrators, and parents. Parents worry that young children may not be able to compete with older classmates; schools worry that young students will not be able to meet rigorous academic standards associated with school accountability. Past literature is inconclusive as to the overall effect of age at school entry. Some research suggests that younger students have lower average achievement in early elementary school, while others find that students with summer birthdates, who are assumed to be younger at school entry, gain more education on average. At present, little is known about the impact of age at school entry on education attainment as students transition from high school into college and the labor market. This study uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey to examine long-term effects of age at school entry on both educational and social outcomes, with special attention to those students who enter kindergarten a year later than their peers. The results of this study suggest that delaying kindergarten does not create any long-term advantages for students.

EXPLAINING THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE-DELINQUENCY RELATIONSHIP*

We use data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey to examine the relationship between academic performance and delinquency. We estimate the effects of grades in tenth grade on delinquency in twelfth grade, and then introduce controls for social bonds and self-control (teacher-rated effort). The findings indicate that the feedback that adolescents receive in the form of grades does not affect their delinquent behavior, that academic performance and delinquency have instead a spurious relationship. Our evidence suggests that this relationship is attributable primarily to the effects of individual differences in self-control, not to those of social bonds.

Factors Influencing High School Students to Persist in Aspirations of Teaching Careers

This study longitudinally tracks 10th grade students for 4 years regarding their persistence in aspirations of teaching careers using a nationally representative sample (National Educational Longitudinal Survey of 1988). Factors contributing to persistence in aspirations of teaching careers are examined based on the social-cognitive career theory (SCCT). Results suggest that there are racial differences in persistence in aspirations to teaching careers. Students who persist perform better on academic achievement, score higher on locus of control, and come from a family that had a higher socioeconomic status and a higher parental education level than students who do not persist. Results also suggest a good fit of the social-cognitive model in prediction of persistence in teaching aspirations.

Does Segregation Still Matter? The Impact of Student Composition on Academic Achievement in High School

The Coleman report, published 12 years after the Brown decision, confirmed that widespread school segregation in the United States created inequality of educational opportunity. This study examines whether racial and socioeconomic segregation, which is on the rise in the United States, is still contributing to the achievement differences among students. The study used data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988 to estimate multilevel models of achievement growth between Grades 8 and 12 in mathematics, science, reading, and history for a sample of 14,217 students attending a representative sample of 913 U.S. high schools. The study found that the average socioeconomic level of students’ schools had as much impact on their achievement growth as their own socioeconomic status, net of other background factors. Moreover, school socioeconomic status had as much impact on advantaged as on disadvantaged students, and almost as much impact on Whites as on Blacks, raising questions about the likely impact of widespread integration. The impact of socioeconomic composition was explained by four school characteristics: teacher expectations, the amount of homework that students do, the number of rigorous courses that students take, and students’ feelings about safety. The results suggest that schools serving mostly lower-income students tend to be organized and operated differently than those serving more-affluent students, transcending other school-level differences such as public or private, large or small. This article then addresses the question of whether such school characteristics can be changed by policies to reform schools and funding systems versus policies to desegregate schools.

Dropping Out of High School among Mexican-Origin Youths: Is Early Work Experience a Factor?

In this article, Anane Olatunji examines the effects of work experience on early high school attrition among Mexican-origin adolescents. He proposes a theoretical model that takes assimilation into account as a potential predictor of the consequences of work for this group. In order to estimate the effects of eighth-grade work experience on dropping out of school in 1990, he analyzed data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988. He begins this article with a brief review of literature on high school dropouts and youth employment. He argues that this topic is particularly salient for Mexican-origin youths because they not only comprise the majority of Hispanics, the nation largest ethnic minority group, but also exhibit an alarmingly low high school completion rate. Overall, the results support conventional models that researchers have used to predict outcomes of teenage employment. Among Mexicanorigin adolescents, however, girls were three and a half times more likely than boys to leave school, after controlling for work and other factors. He concludes the article with implications for future research, especially the role that gender plays in predicting early high school attrition among Mexican-origin youths.

Does Segregation Still Matter? The Impact of Student Composition on Academic Achievement in High School

The Coleman report, published 12 years after the Brown decision, confirmed that widespread school segregation in the United States created inequality of educational opportunity. This study examines whether racial and socioeconomic segregation, which is on the rise in the United States, is still contributing to the achievement differences among students. The study used data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988 to estimate multilevel models of achievement growth between Grades 8 and 12 in mathematics, science, reading, and history for a sample of 14,217 students attending a representative sample of 913 U.S. high schools. The study found that the average socioeconomic level of students’ schools had as much impact on their achievement growth as their own socioeconomic status, net of other background factors. Moreover, school socioeconomic status had as much impact on advantaged as on disadvantaged students, and almost as much impact on Whites as on Blacks, raising questions about the likely impact of widespread integration. The impact of socioeconomic composition was explained by four school characteristics: teacher expectations, the amount of homework that students do, the number of rigorous courses that students take, and students’ feelings about safety. The results suggest that schools serving mostly lower-income students tend to be organized and operated differently than those serving more-affluent students, transcending other school-level differences such as public or private, large or small. This article then addresses the question of whether such school characteristics can be changed by policies to reform schools and funding systems versus policies to desegregate schools.

Hidden Dragons

In this research, the authors take a multicultural feminist approach to examining Asian American women’s participation in sport during the high school years. Data come from the nationally representative, longitudinal National Educational Longitudinal Survey. Asian American women are virtually invisible in the sport literature in part because of simplistic stereotypes of submissive, subservient Asian American women. Findings suggest considerable diversity across groups of Asian American women in sport participation. They also show that Asian American women, as a whole, have a different pattern of sport participation than other women. However, they are not less involved in sport. They are slightly less involved in sport than are young Asian American men, but this gender effect exists across race and ethnic groups. Implications of these findings for understanding the complexity of Asian American culture and the importance of examining Asian American gender systems as unique products of Asian American history and culture are discussed.

The long-term effects of ability grouping in mathematics: A national investigation

The complexities of school tracking have resulted in patchy explanations of how it might affect students’ academic success. We aim to develop a comprehensive understanding of tracking by investigating its long-term relationships with student outcomes. Our study is informed by sociological and social psychological theoretical perspectives that explain how this school practice may wield its influence. We use panel data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS:88) for a comprehensive analysis of the associations between ability grouping in the eighth grade and subsequent social psychological and academic variables in the 10th and 12th grades, respectively. By covering three waves of data that monitor the mathematics progress of middle school youngsters as they go through high school, we present the durable relationships of tracking. Our method compares students in tracked and untracked schools, and further partitions these students into high and low ability groups. Our results reaffirm that tracking has persistent instructional benefits for all students. Yet, high-achieving students who are tracked in middle school may suffer considerable losses in self-concept that subsequently depress their achievement, and mathematics course-taking. Implications are for a broad range theory of tracking and for further empirical work on the viability of heterogeneously-grouped classes.

Family resources, social capital, and college attendance

Using four waves of the National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS), we study the influence of parental education, family income, and selected aspects of social capital on the probability of attending different types of post-secondary education. We focus specifically on social capital over which parents and adolescents have some control while the children are adolescents. We compare the importance of social capital to parental education and family income, factors over which parents and children have little control by the time children are adolescents, in explaining the likelihood of individuals attending college. The results suggest that parental expectations, parent/adolescent discussion of school activities, Catholic school attendance, school changing, parental involvement in school activities, and parent-school academic contact are strongly related to post-secondary enrollment. Using predicted probabilities generated by models of college attendance, we show that the individual and cumulative effects of these social capital variables are sizable enough to warrant further research as well as consideration in policy discussions of how to increase educational attainment.

DO GENDER AND RACE MATTER? EXPLAINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPORTS PARTICIPATION AND ACHIEVEMENT

Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey, I explore whether there are gender and race differences in the effects of participation in a variety of sports on achievement in four domains. While results suggest that selection accounts for some of the sports effects and perhaps gender differences found in prior research, the achievement benefits of playing other team sports (not softball or basketball) and individual sports appear to be greater and more consistent for white female participants than for others particularly in the three achievement domains (Mathematics, Science, and History) where females trail males in average test scores.

The Returns of a Community College Education: Evidence From the National Education Longitudinal Survey

Using the 2000 follow-up of the National Education Longitudinal Survey, the authors estimated earnings effects of a community college education. Previous research relied on data collected from students enrolled 20 or 30 years ago. Because the labor market and community colleges have changed dramatically since then, the authors provide an update by studying students enrolled in the 1990s. They found substantial evidence that a community college education has positive effects on earnings among young workers. This effect was larger for annual earnings than for hourly wages. Earnings benefits accrued both to those who failed to earn a credential and to those who earned an associate degree. The current results are similar to estimates for earlier cohorts. The stability of the wage advantage of a community college education during a period of growing enrollment provides evidence of a growing relative demand for a community college over a high school education.

Consequences of Employment During High School: Character Building, Subversion of Academic Goals, or a Threshold?

This study showed that working during high school had negative effects on 15 of 23 Grade 12 and postsecondary outcomes such as achievement, course-work selection, educational and occupational aspirations, and college attendance. These effects were found with control for background variables and parallel outcomes from Grades 8 and 10 based on the 8-year (four-wave), nationally representative National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988. The only benefit of working was a reduction in postsecondary unemployment, but even this effect was nonlinear. In the case of most outcomes, the effects of hours worked were primarily linear and negative and were consistent across ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, initial ability levels, and different types of work. Among continuing students who worked during high school, however, working to save money for college had mostly favorable effects.

Test Scores, Dropout Rates, and Transfer Rates as Alternative Indicators of High School Performance

This study investigated the relationships among several different indicators of high school performance: test scores, dropout rates, transfer rates, and attrition rates. Hierarchical linear models were used to analyze panel data from a sample of 14,199 students who took part in the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988. The results generally support the notion of an alternative as opposed to a common view of school effectiveness: Schools that are effective in promoting student learning (growth in achievement) are not necessarily effective in reducing dropout or transfer rates. In fact, after control for student inputs, high schools exhibit relatively little variability in dropout rates but considerable variation in transfer rates. In addition, characteristics of schools that contributed to performance in one area often did not contribute to performance in another. Given these findings, the authors suggest that, along with test scores, dropout and transfer rates should be used to judge school performance.

The effect of maternal employment on teenage childbearing

This paper estimates the effect of a mother’s employment on her teenage daughter’s likelihood of birth. Using data from the United States, the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988, the author finds that teenagers with working mothers who attend relatively wealthy schools are more likely (77%) to have a birth compared to teens who attend similar schools but have non-working mothers. In contrast, teenagers with working mothers who attend relatively poor schools are less likely (18%) to have a birth compared to teens who attend similar schools but have non-working mothers.

Laying the Foundation for Employment: The Role of Social Capital in Educational Achievement

This paper examines the role of social capital - the set of supportive interpersonal interactions that exists in the family, community, and school - in promoting educational achievement. Employing data on public school students from the National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS) and other secondary data sources, we examine the link between students’ access to social capital and important educational benchmarks, especially standardized test scores for math and reading. Building on previous research, we attempt to refine the conceptualization and measurement of social capital. We then undertake a new exploration of test score gains realized by students over the course of the 8th to 12th grades in order to assess the extent to which social capital attributes of the family, school, and community contribute to such gains. Finally, we outline the implications of our findings in guiding education policy activities in rural America.

Daddies, Devotion, and Dollars

Abstract. Growing up in a family that lacks a biological father is correlated with a number of poor outcomes for youths. This study uses the National Educational Longitudinal Survey of 1988 to examine the extent to which differences in income or parental involvement can explain the effects of family structure on youth outcomes. We find that measurement error in income from single‐parent homes has a large effect on the results because of the variability in income earned over a youth's teen years. Overall, we find that lower income explains most of the disadvantages of youths in single‐parent homes, but neither gaps in income nor in parental involvement explain the disadvantages of families with stepfathers.

African American Women in Science: Experiences from High School through the Post-Secondary Years and Beyond

��� This essay uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS) to provide information on the science achievement, access (course-taking), and attitudes of young African American women at various points in the science education system. In addition, it uses recent data from the NELS 2000 panel to examine these young women’s entry into science occupations in the early adult years. This essay also examines the extent to which their experiences differ from those of young white women. There is a growing—but limited—body of research that suggests that in spite of barriers the science system sets up for women, minorities, and minority women, it cannot be assumed that members of these groups will be equally disinterested in science. Using a multicultural gender framework, I argue that gender systems in the African American community provide young women with a unique set of resources that might be important for generating interest and success in science. In one of the most extensive studies of young African American women’s science experiences from the early high school years to the early adult years, fi ndings show that there is a continued interest and involvement in science, often more so than that for young white women.

Cultural capital and the extracurricular activities of girls and boys in the college attainment process

This paper uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey to assess the relationship between male and female student participation in various extra-curricular activities and those students’ subsequent probability of going on to a 4-year college or university. Our goal is to assess the specific causal role these activities play in the college attainment process. A special feature of the analysis is that it examines extra-curricular activities in relation to two different levels of college attainment: the first stage looks at enrollment in any four-year college or university; the second stage looks only at enrollment in one of the nation's so-called elite, or most selective universities. This allows us to differentiate the effects of extra-curricular participation in ways germane to cultural capital theory, where elite “gatekeeping” is presumed to play a prominent role in the admissions process. We conclude that participation in extra-curricular cultural activities has different causal effects on college-bound and elite-college bound student populations. At the general college level, hands-on training in the arts appears to improve students’ odds of going to college by bolstering their human capital but not their cultural capital. Direct exposure to the arts does not appear to improve students’ chances of going to an “elite” college, though having parents interested in the arts does. These findings generally hold for both girls and boys, with several important exceptions: Contrary to the expectation that girls should benefit most from activities that are stereotypically female, and vice-versa, we actually find the opposite in some cases. At the elite college level, for example, participation in yearbook/school newspaper appears to benefit boys but not girls, though more girls report participating in this activity than boys. Thus, it may be that elite colleges do not simply seek students with high cultural capital but those who stand out, defy expectations, or are otherwise unique among their peers. On the other hand, we find little reason to believe that students can actually be taught or trained in the types of cultural competence valued by elite college admissions offices.

The Schooling Costs of Teenage Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing: Analysis with a Within-School Propensity-Score-Matching Estimator

Teen out-of-wedlock mothers have lower education and earnings than peers who have children later. This study uses the National Educational Longitudinal Survey of 1988 (NELS) to examine the extent to which the apparent effects of out-of-wedlock teen fertility are due to pre- existing disadvantages of the young women and their families. We use a novel method that matches teen mothers to similar young women in their junior high school (that is, prior to pregnancy). We find that out-of-wedlock fertility reduces education substantially, although far less than the cross-sectional comparisons of means suggest. We further find that this effect is largest among those with the lowest probability of having a child out of wedlock.