Abstract
In this study, we examined racial/ethnic differences in grade point average (GPA) among students at a highly selective, private university who were surveyed before matriculation and during the first, second and fourth college years, and assessed prominent explanations for the Black-White and Latino-White college achievement gap. We found that roughly half of the observed gap was attributable to family background characteristics and pre-college academic preparation. Of the within-college factors we considered, perceptions of campus climate and selection of major field of study were most important in explaining racial/ethnic differences in GPA. Personal resources, such as academic effort, self-esteem and academic identification, and patterns of involvement in campus life were significantly associated with GPA, but these factors did not account for racial/ethnic differences in academic performance. Overall, our results suggest that efforts to reduce the college achievement gap should focus on assisting students with the process of selecting major fields of study and on fostering a welcoming and inclusive campus environment.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
For the analysis to follow, racial/ethnic categories were based on pre-college survey questions that asked if the respondent was Hispanic and then elicited a racial category (or categories). If survey data were missing, information from the admissions form was used to classify students. About 4 % (n = 47) of the sample members were international students (i.e., temporary residents); these students were classified to one of the five racial/ethnic categories: Asian (n = 33), White (n = 9), multiracial/other (n = 3), Black (n = 1) and Latino (n=1).
As the GPA variable was negatively skewed, we tested alternative measures of academic performance. In analysis available upon request, the results described below were entirely consistent with models that predicted percentile rank in class rather than GPA.
Missing values for family income (8 % missing) were replaced with a regression-predicted score using variables for racial/ethnic group, parent’s education and occupational status, and interest in financial aid. No other variable included in this study contained more than 2 % missing values, which were replaced by mean imputation.
To calculate standardized coefficients, we divided interval-ratio and ordinal variables by two standard deviations to allow more direct comparisons with categorical variables (Gelman 2008).
About 73 % of Black and Latino students who initially majored a natural science major reported a change by the second year, compared to 57 % of White and 45 % of Asian prospective natural science majors (\(\chi^{ 2}_{( 4)}\) = 8.09, p < .05). There were no significant differences in the frequency of changes among first year engineering, social science or arts/humanities majors.
In an alternative specification, there were no significant associations with GPA for weekly time spent in extracurricular activities or interacting with faculty outside of class.
To further consider differences across racial/ethnic groups, we conducted Wald tests for equality of coefficients between each pairing (e.g., Black vs. Latino) for all models included in Tables 1 and 2 and incorporating the Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. In the baseline model (Table 1, Model 1), the coefficient for Black students was significantly lower than for Latino, Asian and multiracial students, and the coefficient for Latino students was significantly lower than for Asian students. In all other models, only the difference between coefficients for Black and Asian students was significant.
Honors recognition, collected from official transcripts, included Latin (summa, magna or cum laude) and departmental honors. Latin honors were awarded to students with final GPA above the top quartile threshold for the previous year’s graduating class, determined separately for the schools of engineering and arts and sciences.
Among students who reported a major change in the year two survey, 41 % of Black and 35 % of Latino students reported that they changed due to academic difficulty, compared to 19 % of other students (\(\chi^{ 2}_{( 4)}\) = 11.20, p < .001).
Occupation or job title in the fall of 2011 (five or six years after graduation) was available from self-reported profiles to the Duke Alumni Association subset of respondents (n = 345). Notably, 11 % of Black students report being a teacher, compared to 4 % of other students.
References
Allen, J., & Robbins, S. B. (2008). Prediction of college major persistence based on vocational interests, academic preparation, and first-year academic performance. Research in Higher Education, 49, 62–79.
Alon, S., & Tienda, M. (2005). Assessing the ‘mismatch’ hypothesis: Differences in college retention rates by institutional selectivity. Sociology of Education, 78, 294–315.
Arcidiacono, P., Aucejo, E. M., & Spenner, K. (2012). What happens after enrollment? An analysis of the time path of racial differences in GPA and major choice. IZA Journal of Labor Economics, 1, 1–24.
Aspelmeier, J. E., Love, M. M., McGill, L. A., Elliott, A. N., & Pierce, T. W. (2012). Self-esteem, locus of control, college adjustment, and GPA among first- and continuing-generation students: A moderator model of generational status. Research in Higher Education, 53, 755–781.
Astin, A. W. (1993). What matters in college? Four critical years revisited. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Beasley, M. A. (2011). Opting out: Losing the potential of America’s young black elite. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Becker, G. S. (1975). Human capital: A theoretical and empirical analysis, with special reference to education. New York: Columbia University Press.
Bensimon, E. M. (2005). Closing the achievement gap in higher education: An organizational learning perspective. New Directions for Higher Education, 131, 99–111.
Board, College. (2001). College-bound seniors: A profile of SAT program test takers. New York: Education Testing Services.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). New York: Greenwood.
Bowen, W. G., & Bok, D. (1998). The shape of the river: Long-term consequences of considering race in college and university admissions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Bowen, W. G., Chingos, M. M., & McPherson, M. S. (2009). Crossing the finish line: Completing college at America’s public universities. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Burke, P. J., & Reitzes, D. C. (1991). An identity theory approach to commitment. Social Psychological Quarterly, 54, 239–251.
Charles, C. Z., Fischer, M. J., Mooney, M. A., & Massey, D. S. (2009). Taming the river: Negotiating the academic, financial, and social currents in selective colleges and universities. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Chou, R. S., & Feagin, J. R. (2015). Myth of the model minority: Asian Americans facing racism (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Cole, S., & Barber, E. (2003). Increasing faculty diversity: The occupational choices of high-achieving minority students. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Condron, D. J., Tope, D., Steidl, C. R., & Freeman, K. J. (2013). Racial segregation and the black/white achievement gap, 1992 to 2009. Sociological Quarterly, 54, 130–157.
DeSimone, J. S. (2008). The impact of employment during school on college student academic performance (Working Paper No. 14006). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Downey, D. B., Ainsworth, J. W., & Qian, Z. (2009). Rethinking the attitude-achievement paradox among blacks. Sociology of Education, 82, 1–19.
Espenshade, T. J., & Radford, A. W. (2009). No longer separate, not yet equal: Race and class in elite college admission and campus life. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Ferguson, R. F. (2003). Teachers’ perceptions and expectations and the Black-White test score gap. Urban Education, 38, 460–507.
Fischer, M. J. (2007). Settling into campus life: Differences by race/ethnicity in college involvement and outcomes. Journal of Higher Education, 78, 125–156.
Fletcher, J. M., & Tienda, M. (2010). Race and ethnic differences in college achievement: Does high school attended matter? Annals of the American Academic of Political and Social Science, 627, 144–166.
Gelman, A. (2008). Scaling regression inputs by dividing by two standard deviations. Statistics in Medicine, 27, 2865–2873.
Gumport, P. J. (Ed.). (2007). Sociology of higher education: Contributions and their contexts. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Halaby, C. N. (2004). Panel models in sociological research: Theory into practice. Annual Review of Sociology, 30, 507–544.
Hearn, J. C., & Rosinger, K. O. (2014). Socioeconomic diversity in selective private colleges: An organizational analysis. Review of Higher Education, 38, 71–104.
Horn, L. (2006). Placing college graduation rates in context: How 4-year college graduation rates vary with selectivity and the size of low-income enrollment (NCES 2007-161). Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics.
Hsiao, C. (2007). Panel data analysis – advantages and challenges. TEST, 16, 1–22.
Hu, S., & Kuh, G. (2002). Being (dis)engaged in educational purposeful activities: The influences of student and institutional characteristics. Research in Higher Education, 43, 555–575.
Hurtado, S., Milem, J., Clayton-Pedersen, A., & Allen, W. (1999). Enacting diverse learning environments: Improving the climate for racial/ethnic diversity in higher education. In ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report (vol. 26, no. 8). Washington, DC: George Washington University, Graduate School of Education and Human Development.
Jencks, C., & Phillips, M. (Eds.). (1998). The Black-White test score gap. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.
Johnson, D. R., Soldner, M., Leonard, J. B., Alvarez, P., Inkelas, K. K., Rowan-Kenyon, H. T., et al. (2007). Examining sense of belonging among first-year undergraduates from different racial/ethnic groups. Journal of College Student Development, 48, 525–542.
Kao, G., & Thompson, J. S. (2003). Racial and ethnic stratification in educational achievement and attainment. Annual Review of Sociology, 29, 417–442.
Karabel, J. (2005). The chosen: The hidden history of admission and exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. New York: Mariner Books.
Kelly, S. (2009). The black-white gap in mathematics course taking. Sociology of Education, 82, 47–69.
Kim, Y. K., & Sax, L. J. (2014). The effects of student-faculty interaction on academic self-concept: Does academic major matter? Research in Higher Education, 55, 780–809.
Klugman, J. (2012). How resource inequalities among high schools reproduce class advantages in college destinations. Research in Higher Education, 53, 803–830.
Kugelmass, H., & Ready, D. D. (2011). Racial/ethnic disparities in collegiate cognitive gains: A multilevel analysis of institutional influences on learning and its equitable distribution. Research in Higher Education, 52, 323–348.
Kuh, G. D. (2001). Assessing what really matters to student learning: Inside the National Survey of Student Engagement. Change, 33(10–17), 66.
Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., Buckley, J. A., Bridges, B. K., & Hayek, J. C. (2007). Piecing together the student success puzzle. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Kurlaender, M., & Grodsky, E. (2013). Mismatch and the paternalistic justification for selective college admissions. Sociology of Education, 86, 294–310.
Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in U.S. schools. Educational Researcher, 35, 3–12.
Lareau, A. (2011). Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family Life (2nd ed.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Lareau, A., & Weininger, E. B. (2003). Cultural capital in educational research: A critical assessment. Theory and Society, 32, 567–606.
Levenson, H. (1973). Reliability and validity of the I, P, and C scales: A multidimensional view of locus of control. In Paper presented at the American Psychological Association Convention: Symposium on Beliefs in Locus of Control, Montreal.
Lundberg, C. A., & Schreiner, L. A. (2004). Quality and frequency of faculty-student interaction as predictors of learning: An analysis by student race/ethnicity. Journal of College Student Development, 45, 549–565.
Martin, N. D. (2012). The privilege of ease: Social class and campus life at highly selective, private universities. Research in Higher Education, 53, 426–452.
Martin, N. D., & Spenner, K. I. (2009). Capital conversion and accumulation: A social portrait of legacies at an elite university. Research in Higher Education, 50, 623–648.
Martin, N. D., Tobin, W., & Spenner, K. I. (2014). Interracial friendships across the college years: Evidence from a longitudinal case study. Journal of College Student Development, 55, 720–725.
Massey, D. S., Charles, C. Z., Lundy, G. F., & Fischer, M. J. (2003). The source of the river: The social origins of freshmen at America’s selective colleges and universities. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Massey, D. S., & Mooney, M. (2007). The effects of America’s three affirmative action programs on academic performance. Social Problems, 54, 99–117.
Massey, D. S., & Probasco, L. (2010). Divergent streams: Race-gender achievement gaps at selective colleges and universities. Du Bois Review, 7, 219–246.
Nelson Laird, T. F., Bridges, B. K., Morelon-Quainoo, C. L., Williams, J. M., & Holmes, M. S. (2007). African American and Hispanic student engagement at minority serving and predominately white institutions. Journal of College Student Development, 48, 39–56.
O’Connor, C., Lewis, A., & Mueller, J. (2007). Researching ‘black’ educational experiences and outcomes: Theoretical and methodological considerations. Educational Researcher, 36, 541–552.
Oates, G. L. (2009). An empirical test of five prominent explanations for the black-white academic performance gap. Social Psychology of Education, 12, 415–441.
Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (2005). How college affects students: A third decade of research (Vol. 2). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Pike, G. R., Kuh, G. D., & Massa-McKinley, R. (2008). First year students’ employment, engagement, and academic achievement: Untangling the relationship between work and grades. NASPA Journal, 45, 560–582.
Porter, S. R., & Umbach, P. D. (2006). College major choice: An analysis of person-environment fit. Research in Higher Education, 47, 429–449.
Rabe-Hesketh, S., & Skrondal, A. (2012). Multilevel and longitudinal modeling using Stata. Continuous Responses (Vol. I). College Station, TX: Stata Press.
Raudenbush, S. W., & Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Reitzes, D. C., & Jaret, C. (2007). Identities and social-psychological well-being among African American college students. Sociological Focus, 40, 392–412.
Rivera, L. A. (2015). Pedigree: How elite students get elite jobs. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Rosenberg, M., Schooler, C., Schoenbach, C., & Rosenberg, F. (1995). Global self-esteem and specific self-esteem: Different concepts, different outcomes. American Sociological Review, 60, 141–156.
Sander, R., & Taylor, S., Jr. (2012). Mismatch. New York: Basic Books.
Shapiro, J. R., & Neuberg, S. L. (2007). From stereotype threat to stereotype threats: Implications of a multi-threat framework for causes, moderators, mediators, consequences and interventions. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11, 107–130.
Smyth, F. L., & McArdle, J. J. (2004). Ethnic and gender differences in science graduation at selective colleges with implications for admission policy and college choice. Research in Higher Education, 45, 353–381.
Solberg, V. S. H., Carlstrom, A. H., Howards, K. A. S., & Jones, J. E. (2007). Classifying at-risk high school youth: The influence of exposure to community violence and protective factors on academic and health outcomes. Career Development Quarterly, 55, 313–327.
Spenner, K. I., Buchmann, C., & Landerman, L. R. (2005). The Black-White achievement gaap in the first college year: Evidence from a new longitudinal case study. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 22, 187–216.
Stearns, E., Buchmann, C., & Bonneau, K. (2009). Interracial friendships in the transition to college: Do birds of a feather flock together once they leave the nest? Sociology of Education, 82, 173–195.
Stevens, M. L., Armstrong, E. A., & Arum, R. (2008). Sieve, incubator, temple, hub: Empirical and theoretical advances in the sociology of higher education. Annual Review of Sociology, 34, 127–151.
Stinebrickner, R., & Stinebrickner, T. R. (2003). Time-use and college outcomes. Journal of Econometrics, 121, 243–269.
Stupnisky, R. H., Renaud, R. D., Perry, R. P., Ruthig, J. C., Haynes, T. L., & Clifton, R. A. (2007). Comparing self-esteem and perceived control as predictors of first-year college students’ academic achievement. Social Psychology of Education, 10, 303–330.
Swadener, B. B., & Lubeck, S. (1995). Children and families ‘at promise’: Deconstructing the discourse of risk. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Tinto, V. (2012). Completing college: Rethinking institutional action. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Valencia, R. R. (2010). Dismantling contemporary deficit thinking: Educational thought and practice. New York: Routledge.
Walker, J. K., Martin, N. D., & Hussey, A. (2015). Greek organization membership and collegiate outcomes at an elite, private university. Research in Higher Education, 56, 203–227.
Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. Psychological Review, 92, 548–573.
Wolniak, G. C., & Engberg, M. E. (2010). Academic achievement in the first year of college: Evidence of the pervasive effects of high school context. Research in Higher Education, 51, 451–467.
Acknowledgments
The Campus Life & Learning data were collected by A.Y. Bryant, Claudia Buchmann and Kenneth I. Spenner (Principal Investigators), with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Duke University. The authors bear full responsibility for the contents herein.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Martin, N.D., Spenner, K.I. & Mustillo, S.A. A Test of Leading Explanations for the College Racial-Ethnic Achievement Gap: Evidence from a Longitudinal Case Study. Res High Educ 58, 617–645 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-016-9439-6
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-016-9439-6