Divergent Paths to College: Race, Class, and Inequality in High Schools (Critical Issues in American Education)

In __Divergent Paths to College__, Megan M. Holland examines how high schools structure different pathways that lead students to very different college destinations based on race and class. She finds that racial and class inequalities are reproduced through unequal access to key sources of information, even among students in the same school and even in schools with well-established college-going cultures. As the college application process becomes increasingly complex and high-stakes, social capital, or relationships with people who can provide information as well as support and guidance, becomes much more critical. Although much has been written about the college-bound experience, we know less about the role that social capital plays, and specifically how high schools can serve as organizational brokers of social ties. The relationships that high schools cultivate between students and higher education institutions by inviting college admissions officers into their schools to market to students, is a particularly critical, yet unexplored source of college information. "In Two Paths Diverged: Race, Class and Inequality in the College-Going High School, sociologist Megan Holland examines how the high schools that Kristen and Amber attend structure different pathways that lead to very different college destinations based on race and class. Holland delves into the stories and experiences of 89 students navigating the college application process over their junior and senior years, and she draws upon a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample that mirrors the schools' populations to show how students within the same school have vastly different college application experiences. In addition, she follows a subset of students throughout their junior and senior years of high school and follows up with them four years after high school graduation to understand these students' full postsecondary trajectories. Ultimately Holland finds that racial and class inequalities are reproduced through unequal access to key sources of information, even among students in the same school and even in schools with well-established college-going cultures. The culture of the schools and larger cultural norms about college and ideas about race and class contribute to the power of these inequalities" -- Provided by publisher