High School Effects on Achievement

Abstract

For the past 15 years, sociologists have actively been working to identify. measure, and interpret the effects of schools on aspirations and achievements. Paradoxically, social science interest in school effectiveness gained in intensity and scope in the aftermath of the publication of Equality of Educational Opportunity (Coleman, Campbell, Hobson, McPartland, Mood, Weinfeld, and York, 1966). That massive study found that American public schools are remarkably homogeneous in resources and in educational outcomes, while there remain unacceptably large differentials among the achievements of major racial and socioeconomic groups. These broad conclusions appear to stand despite the challenges posed by systematic critical review and by further research (Mosteller and Moynihan, 1972; Jencks, Smith, Acland, Bane, Cohen, Gintis, Heyns, and Michelson, 1972; Averch, Carroll, Donaldson, Kiesling, and Pincus, 1972). If schools do make a difference, the causative factors may be macrosocial. as in variable length of temporal exposure to schooling (Wiley. Chapter 8 of this volume). Alternatively, the systematic variation in