| James Ainsworth-Darnell
Ohio State University
How neighborhood context affects academic performance across racial groups
FINAL REPORT:
The urban and educational literature has recently begun to focus on the increase in concentrated poverty in inner-city neighborhoods, and the educational failure of youth often associated with living in these neighborhoods--a trend that disproportionately affects racial minorities. The current study examines this issue from several perspectives by identifying which neighborhood characteristics influence educational outcomes, whether the relationships between neighborhood characteristics and educational outcomes differ across racial groups, and what the mechanisms are that mediate these associations. Utilizing the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 linked to 1990 Census information at the zip-code level, the current study finds that neighborhood characteristics are not only predictive of educational outcomes, but the strength of their predictions often rivals more commonly cited family- and school-related factors. Moreover, the predictive power of individual neighborhood characteristics depends heavily on the type of educational outcome being considered, as well as the race of the student. For example, the presence of positive role models is associated with higher achievement test scores, but is unrelated to students' dropout status. Furthermore, white students tend to benefit more than blacks from living in advantaged neighborhoods, while black students suffer a greater penalty than whites for living in disadvantaged neighborhoods. When considering how neighborhood characteristics influence educational outcomes, theorists have proposed several mediating processes, including collective socialization, social control, social capital, perception of opportunity, and institutional characteristics. The current study reveals that these mediators account for only a modest proportion of the neighborhood effects on educational outcomes, with collective socialization and social control having the strongest influence. The policy implications ofthis research and directions for future research are discussed.
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