First Advisor

Dara Shifrer

Term of Graduation

Fall 2024

Date of Publication

12-16-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Sociology

Department

Sociology

Language

English

Subjects

curricular stratification, school socioeconomic status, secondary schools

Physical Description

1 online resource (ix, 211 pages)

Abstract

Motivated by longstanding sociological theories and utilizing the most current, large, and nationally representative data, this dissertation aims to describe and add nuance to our understanding of how the curriculum US youth are exposed to is stratified by the socioeconomic composition of the schools they attend. All three empirical chapters suggest that school SES contributes to substantial differences in school structure, as evidenced by differences in course-taking patterns and how course-taking relates to academic achievement in high school and beyond. The first study suggests that the relationship between curricular intensity in secondary school and postsecondary achievement is variable depending on school SES. Results suggest that the strong positive relationship between curricular intensity and first-year-college-GPA is only evident for youth attending high SES schools, and the inverse might be true for their peers enrolled in low-SES schools. The second study focuses on course-taking in seemingly unrelated subject areas: mathematics and visual and performing arts. Findings suggest that youth at higher-SES schools not only take more arts coursework but that arts coursework uniquely relates to higher math achievement for them. As learning does not occur in subject-silos, the second study documents an element of school structure that might contribute to the enduring relationship between social advantage and educational achievement--i.e., the degree to which the curriculum is holistic. Finally, the third study explores national-level course-taking patterns and whether they are related to the socioeconomic compositions of schools youth attend. Approaching nationally representative transcript data without assumptions about course-taking, this study suggests that youth attending lower-SES schools tend to share more courses in common than their peers at higher-SES schools, and adolescents at higher-SES schools tend to take more advanced coursework. The findings suggest that youth attending high SES schools are more likely to complete coursework that gives them a competitive advantage in college. Collectively, the empirical chapters suggest that depending on school SES, youth in the US attend very different schools and thus learn very different things. These inequalities in course-taking translate into significant constraints on education as an institution of upward social mobility. Rather than acting as an institution of equalization, schools appear to contribute to the reproduction and even intensification of preexisting social stratification.

Rights

© 2024 Daniel Mackin Freeman

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (DRL-1652279) and the National Institutes of Health-funded Build EXITO program at Portland State University (UL1GM118964).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/42895

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