Cl. Bankston et Sj. Caldas, FAMILY-STRUCTURE, SCHOOLMATES, AND RACIAL INEQUALITIES IN SCHOOL-ACHIEVEMENT, Journal of marriage and the family, 60(3), 1998, pp. 715-723
This study examines the influence of schoolmate family structure, raci
al 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 rook the Louisi
ana Graduation Exit Examination. The study finds that being surrounded
by schoolmates from female-headed families had the second largest neg
ative association with the academic achievement of African Americans,
greater in effect than the association of academic achievement with in
dividual family structure. It appears that the negative effect of conc
entrations of African Americans in schools may be largely attributed t
o the association of minority concentration schools with high percenta
ges of female-headed families.