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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Christopher S. Hollenbeak, PhD, Surgery, Penn State College of Medicine, P.O. Box 850, MC H113, Hershey, PA 17033, 717-531-5890, chollenbeak@psu.edu, Joel Myerson, PhD, Psychology, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1125, St. Louis, MO 63130, Mark Rank, PhD, School of Social Work, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1196, St. Louis, MO 63130, and Mark A. Schnitzler, PhD, Health Adminstration Program, Washington University, 4547 Clayton Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110.
Objectives. Recent research suggests that while there appear to be diminishing returns for white student throughout high school and college, the returns to education for black students appears to be increasing throughout college. This study investigates racial differences in the relationship between years of schooling and cognitive ability.
Methods. Data for this study were taken from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). We compared average armed forces qualifying test (AFQT) scores at time of testing by grade for students who completed either 15 or 16 years of education. Quantile regression was used to test whether observed differences were due to ceiling effects.
Results. The gap between white college graduates and black college graduates fell from 34 percentage points at 12 years to 23 percentile points at 16 years. For black college dropouts, the gap fell from 40 percentile points at 12 years to 33 percentile points at 15 years. Finally, the gap between white college graduates and dropouts fell from 10 percentile points in grade 12 to 2 percentile points in grade 15. This pattern was observed across quartiles of AFQT scores. The closing of the gap was primarily due to the fact that between grade 13 and 16 the white college graduates did not improve, while the scores of the other groups did.
Conclusions. Secondary and post-secondary education has a positive impact on general cognitive ability. Furthermore, there was a differential effect for black and white students, with black students exhibiting higher marginal gains through college years.
Learning Objectives: After attending this presentation, participants will
Keywords: Education, Ethnicity
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.