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WHERE ARE ALL THE BOYS?

Examining the Black-White Gender Gap in Postsecondary Attainment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2008

Rachelle Brunn  and
Grace Kao
Rachelle Brunn*
Affiliation:
Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University
Grace Kao
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
*
Rachelle Brunn, Postdoctoral Fellow, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, 295 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

We explore the gender gap in college completion among Blacks and Whites. Using the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, we examine how early school achievement and educational expectations affect attainment by following a nationally representative sample of youths from 1988 (approximately age fourteen) to 2000 (approximately age twenty-six). The odds of attaining an associate's or a bachelor's degree among Black women are greater than the odds among White men after controlling for family socioeconomic status. However, the difference between Black men and White men is additionally dependent on differences in middle school and high school achievement and in high school sequencing.

Keywords

RaceGenderHigher EducationDegree AttainmentAchievement
Type
STATE OF THE ART
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , Spring 2008 , pp. 137 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2008

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