Racialized tracking is central to sociological explanations for racially stratified educational outcomes. However, school officials' decision-making is of debated importance for explaining racialized tracking. We contribute to this literature by examining the effects of schools' enrollment policies for Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Using a…

Existing research generally confirms a countercyclical education enrollment, whereby youths seek shelter in the educational system to avoid hardships in the labor market: the "discouraged worker" thesis. Alternatively, the "encouraged worker" thesis predicts that economic downturns steer individuals away from education because…

Official sanctioning of students by the criminal justice system is a long-hypothesized source of educational disadvantage, but its explanatory status remains unresolved. Few studies of the educational consequences of a criminal record account for alternative explanations such as low self-control, lack of parental supervision, deviant peers, and…

Do schools reduce or perpetuate inequality by race and family income? Most studies conclude that schools play only a small role in explaining socioeconomic and racial disparities in educational outcomes, but they usually draw this conclusion based solely on test scores. We reconsider this finding using longitudinal data on test scores and…

The literature on neighborhood effects on schooling theorizes that neighborhood cultural context is an important mechanism generating such effects. However, explanations that rely on subcultural theories, such as oppositional culture, have met with considerable criticism on empirical grounds, and no alternative account of the cultural context of…

This article examines the extent to which indicators of the college-going climate of urban high schools are associated with students' application to, enrollment in, and choice among four-year colleges. The investigators examine two mechanisms by which high schools may shape college enrollment among low-income students in an urban school system:…

This article uses administrative data from the University of Texas at Austin to examine whether the number of classmates from the same high school at college entry influences college achievement, measured by grade point average (GPA) and persistence. For each freshman cohort from 1993 through 2003, the authors calculated the number and ethnic…

This study reconsidered school effects on college enrollment by focusing on strategies that schools use to facilitate college transitions. It also examined whether school strategies influence different outcomes for students from different racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Using data from the High School Effectiveness Study, the analysis…

Obesity is a health condition, but its consequences extend far beyond the realm of health. To illuminate an important route by which the experience of obesity can filter into the status attainment process, this study drew on nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to test a social psychological…

Examines whether economic conditions similarly influence the college enrollment of adolescents from different groups. Indicates effects of income returns varies systematically by race, class, gender, and cognitive skills. Argues that college enrollment of white males from lower socioeconomic origins with lower cognitive skills is most consistent…