TY - JOUR
T1 - The effect of childhood segregation on minority academic performance at selective colleges
AU - Massey, Douglas S.
AU - Fischer, Mary J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Sorting out these various influences requires unusually detailed data on the racial composition of schools and neighbourhoods at different points in the life cycle, along with information on their socio-economic characteristics and psychological correlates, all linked to indicators of later academic achievement. The NLSF provides such a source of data. It is a probability sample of students entering a set of selective U.S. colleges and universities as freshmen in the autumn of 1999. Some thirty-five schools were asked to participate in the study, including all the institutions studied by Bowen and Bok (1998) plus the University of California at Berkeley. The survey was sponsored by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, whose president (Bowen) contacted each institution’s president or chancellor to request his or her support.
PY - 2006/1
Y1 - 2006/1
N2 - In this study we draw upon data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, a representative survey of nearly 4,000 men and women entering college in the autumn of 1999, to consider the effects of housing and school segregation during childhood on academic performance in college. We show that black and Latino college students, even those enrolled in the nation's most selective academic institutions, display large differences in background and experiences that are strongly conditioned by racial segregation. Those coming of age in a segregated environment were less prepared academically and socially for college life, and were more exposed to violence and social disorder while growing up. After documenting these differences, we estimate regression models to predict academic performance as a function of the minority composition of the neighbourhoods and schools where respondents lived ages 6-18, controlling for a variety of individual and family characteristics as well as the correlates of segregation.
AB - In this study we draw upon data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, a representative survey of nearly 4,000 men and women entering college in the autumn of 1999, to consider the effects of housing and school segregation during childhood on academic performance in college. We show that black and Latino college students, even those enrolled in the nation's most selective academic institutions, display large differences in background and experiences that are strongly conditioned by racial segregation. Those coming of age in a segregated environment were less prepared academically and socially for college life, and were more exposed to violence and social disorder while growing up. After documenting these differences, we estimate regression models to predict academic performance as a function of the minority composition of the neighbourhoods and schools where respondents lived ages 6-18, controlling for a variety of individual and family characteristics as well as the correlates of segregation.
KW - Academic performance
KW - Higher education
KW - Minority students
KW - Segregation
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U2 - 10.1080/01419870500351159
DO - 10.1080/01419870500351159
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:29244489208
SN - 0141-9870
VL - 29
SP - 1
EP - 26
JO - Ethnic and Racial Studies
JF - Ethnic and Racial Studies
IS - 1
ER -