Family Structure, Schoolmates, and Racial Inequalities in School Achievement

This study examines the influence of schoolmate family structure, racial concentration, and socioeconomic status on the academic achievement of individual African American and White students. The data are drawn from the 1990 test results of 18,000 10th graders who took the Louisiana Graduation Exit Examination. The study finds that being surrounded by schoolmates from female-headed families had the second largest negative association with the academic achievement of African Americans, greater in effect than the association of academic achievement with individual family structure. It appears that the negative effect of concentrations of African Americans in schools may be largely attributed to the association of minority concentration schools with high percentages of female-headed families.