Curriculum Availability, Variations, and Their Implications Across U.S. High Schools
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Date
2008-06
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
Significant social class and race variations across the United States in school quality and resources have been well documented in the social science literature. This study contributes to this body of work by investigating differentiation in curricular availability. While some prior work has shown significant curricular opportunity differences within schools (i.e. through tracking), this project considers whether curricular availability itself varies across schools. My analyses focus on variations in the availability and use of college-preparatory and vocational courses. Most centrally, I examine whether differences in the curriculum offered at a school are related to the social class and racial composition of the student body, but also type of locality (i.e., rural, urban, suburban) and school (i.e., public or private). Findings suggest significant school inequalities in curricular options nationally. Most importantly, the race and social class makeup of a school hold important implications for the type of curriculum made available to students and enrollment behaviors. Students attending predominantly poor schools are less likely to have access to the challenging, advanced placement coursework needed to compete academically at the collegiate level as well as later in the workforce. Curricular opportunities at particularly poor schools are more likely than others to be geared to vocational education. Interesting variations in educational options are also noted across rural, inner city, and suburban schools. Education and social science scholars have, time and again, found considerable evidence that curriculum type and rigor have meaningful implications for both immediate academic achievement and life trajectory. The findings of this project, therefore, suggest an alarming differentiation in the opportunities given to students based not only on where they attend school, but also the racial and economic characteristics of the school they attend.
Description
2nd Place at Denman Undergraduate Research Forum in the category of Business/Social and Behavioral Sciences
Keywords
curriculum, race and class inequality, tracking, urban / rural differences, Advanced Placement, college-preparatory