| Robert Ream
Princeton University
Links between social capital and persistent disparity in educational achievement between racial/ethnic groups.
FINAL REPORT:
Using a national longitudinal database of high school students and field interviews of transient adolescents, this mixed-methods study linked research on student mobility with the emergent social capital literature to investigate student achievement among Mexican-American and non-Latino White adolescents. The study found that Mexican-American underachievement may be partly due to high rates of student mobility which impinge on their social networks. By going beyond rudimentary notions of social capital, this study also investigated whether different forms of peer social capital, like different forms of currency, have different educational exchange value for the two groups. Results encourage increased focus on the reactive and strategic reasons students change schools, and greater sensitivity to inter-and intra-ethnic distinctions in the socialization process that may contribute to group-level differences in the availability and instrumental utility of various social capital resources.
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