Integrated schools, segregated curriculum: effects of within-school segregation on adolescent health behaviors and educational aspirations

Abstract

Objectives: We examined the extent to which within-school segregation, as measured by unevenness in the distribution of Black and White adolescents across levels of the English curriculum (advanced placement-international baccalaureate-honors, general, remedial, or no English), was associated with smoking, drinking, and educational aspirations, which previous studies found are related to school racial/ethnic composition.

Methods: We analyzed data from wave 1 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, restricting our sample to non-Hispanic Blacks (n=2731) and Whites (n=4158) who from 1994 to 1995 attended high schools that enrolled Black and White students.

Results: White female students had higher predicted probabilities of smoking or drinking than did Black female students; the largest differences were in schools with high levels of within-school segregation. Black male students had higher predicted probabilities of high educational aspirations than did White male students in schools with low levels of within-school segregation; this association was attenuated for Black males attending schools with moderate or high levels of within-school segregation.

Conclusions: Our results provide evidence that within-school segregation may influence both students' aspirations and their behaviors.

FIGURE 1

Predicted probability, by level of within-school segregation and race, of (a) smoking or drinking among female adolescents and (b) high desire to attend college among male adolescents: Wave 1, National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, 1994–1995. Note. Adjusted for age, family structure, family SES, school SES, percentage non-Hispanic Whites in school, school size, region, rurality, and school type. Age centered at 16 years, and percentage non-Hispanic Whites centered at 57%. Predicted probability calculated using fully adjusted model 2.