School Racial Composition and Black College Attendance and Achievement Test Performance

An aggregate regional regression analysis is used to examine the impact of high school racial composition on the achievement performance and college attendance and survival rates of 2,150 black students from 484 schools in a 1972 national longitudinal survey. The analysis shows that southern black students graduating from predominantly white high schools are less likely to attend and to survive in college. Southern black achievement is not related to school racial composition. In the North, black achievement, college attendance and college survival are all higher in predominantly white high schools. An attempt is made to test the hypothesis that the higher outcomes for black students in predominantly white schools are due to the of the more motivated black students into the white schools. The test reveals some evidence of self-selection in the South, but does not adequately explain the northern results.