SOCIAL CAPITAL AND THE RACIAL STRATIFICATION OF COLLEGE OPPORTUNITY

Abstract

On the fiftieth anniversary of Brown Board Education, many scholars took an opportunity to reflect on the state of access to quality education for minority students. On the one hand, it was an occasion to celebrate the dramatic and significant gains in educational achievement and attainment by minority students and for women. The high school graduation rate for Blacks, for example, soared up to 78.5% in 2000, from only 33.7% in 1970. Black students achieved similar gains in college attendance (30.3% of high school graduates going to college, compared with 15.5% in 2000 and 1970, respectively).