The impact of communally structured high schools and social support resources on the minority education attainment gap

This study uses data from three waves of the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) to investigate how organizational characteristics of communally structured schools in combination with the availability of social support resources out-of-school influence students' educational attainment. Previous research has indicated that many dimensions of the school environment, including organizational features and school demographics impact overall student achievement and the magnitude of racial differences in students' educational achievement (as accessed by test scores) and educational attainment (defined by high school completion and enrollment in post-secondary education. Separate studies have indicated that social support resources impact overall student achievement and educational attainment. It was, therefore, hypothesized that communal structures in combination with social support resources out-of-school would have significant value in predicting achievement, high school graduation, and post-secondary enrollment for all students and, particularly, for ethnic minority students from low-income backgrounds. The results of this study suggest that individual aspects of communally structured schools are associated with racial differences in high school achievement, completion, and enrollment in post-secondary education. However, the results also suggest that, collectively, features that constitute communally structured schools are not very strong predictors of high school achievement or high school completion. The study shows that there are a multitude of individual characteristics of students, their families, and their schools that impact high school outcomes and that the magnitude of the effect of each of these characteristics vary by ethnic groups. While the findings suggest that features of communally structured schools are not strong predictors of either high school achievement or high school completion, they are for enrollment in postsecondary education. For Hispanic students, features of communally structured schools, and particularly schools that provide resources to support student's pursuit of postsecondary education, appear to have a stronger predictive value for post-secondary enrollment. Overall, the results of this study can show policymakers and practitioners the value of prioritizing school restructuring and the provision of support for postsecondary education as a venue through which to improve the rate of post-secondary enrollment among students from varying socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds.