| There is a dramatic racial and socioeconomic divide in American schooling. White and Asian-American students far surpass their African-American, Latino, and Native American counterparts in academic achievement and college enrollment. Research has traced the gap back to early schooling. While the movement for equal funding between school districts is an important part of the fight to reduce the schism, the critical role of the allocation of educational resources between and within schools must also be understood and addressed.; One critical input in the education production function, which has received little attention in the economics literature, is the curriculum of students within schools. Poor, African-American, Latino, and Native American students are severely underrepresented in advanced courses. The divide in enrollment can be seen in Algebra 1 in middle school, which is typically the first course where students are formally divided into groups who receive different curriculum that directly limits the opportunities available once they reach high school. This study exploits comprehensive North Carolina administrative data that enables tracking each public school student over several years. The study first addresses the issue of course availability and shows that low-income and minority students are more likely to attend schools that either do not offer Algebra 1 or enroll a lower percentage of students in Algebra 1. 1 Second, the study examines the characteristics of students who take Algebra 1 within middle schools. The instrumental variables probit estimation procedure corrects for the endogeneity of students' prior academic performance. The results suggest that low-income students, African-American students and those with less-educated parents are less likely to take Algebra 1 in middle school than other students with equal academic achievement. The impact of the Algebra 1 enrollment is measured through a value-added model. The results find that all students who take Algebra 1 in middle school experience a greater increase in the statewide end-of-grade mathematics exam regardless of their past exam scores. This study helps to bring into focus that one part of the bridge over the gulf in academic performance and college attendance is through equal access to rigorous curriculum both between and within schools.; 1Throughout the text, "minority" refers to African-Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. |
