Selected Peer-Reviewed Articles
Sutton, April, Amy Langenkamp, Chandra Muller, and Kathryn S. Schiller. 2018. "Who Gets Ahead and Who Falls Behind During the Transition to High School? Academic Performance at the Intersection of Race/Ethnicity and Gender." Social Problems 65(2):154-173.
Academic stratification during educational transitions may be maintained, disrupted, or exacerbated. This study marks the first to use national data to investigate how the transition to high school (re)shapes academic status at the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender. We seek to identify the role of the high school transition in shaping racial/ethnic and gender stratification by contextualizing students’ academic declines during the high school transition within the longer window of their educational careers. Using Add Health, we find that white and Black boys experience the greatest drops in their grade point averages (GPAs). We also show that the maintenance of high academic grades between the 8th and 9th grades varies across racial/ethnic and gender subgroups; higher-achieving middle school Black boys experience the greatest academic downward mobility. Importantly, our results indicate that white and Black boys also faced academic declines before the high school transition, whereas their female student peers experienced academic declines only during the transition to high school. We advance current knowledge on educational stratification by identifying the transition to high school as a juncture in which boys’ academic disadvantage widens and high-achieving Black boys lose their academic status at the high school starting gate. Our study also underscores the importance of adopting an intersectional framework that considers both race/ethnicity and gender. Given the salience of high school grades for students’ long-term success, we discuss the implications of this study for racial/ethnic and gender stratification during and beyond high school.
Sutton, April. 2017. "Preparing for Local Labor: Curricular Stratification Across Local Economies in the United States." Sociology of Education 90(2):172-196. Link to article.
I investigate how the educational demands of local labor markets shape high school course offerings and student course taking. Using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 linked to the U.S. Census 2000, I focus on local economic variation in the share of jobs that do not demand a bachelor’s degree. I find that schools in local labor markets with higher concentrations of subbaccalaureate jobs devote a larger share of their course offerings to career and technical education (CTE) courses and a smaller share to advanced college-preparatory courses compared to schools in labor markets with lower concentrations of subbaccalaureate jobs, even net of school resources. Students in labor markets with higher concentrations of subbaccalaureate jobs take greater numbers of CTE courses, and higher-achieving students in these labor markets are less likely to take advanced math and Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate courses. These course-taking disparities are largely due to school course offerings. This study shows how local economic inequalities shape high school curricular stratification, and suggests that school curricula linked to the educational demands of local jobs delimits the college preparation opportunities of high-achieving students.
Sutton, April, Amanda Bosky, and Chandra Muller. 2016. "Manufacturing Gender Inequality in the New Economy: High School Training for Work in Blue-Collar Communities." American Sociological Review 81(4):720-748. Link to article.
Tensions between the demands of the knowledge-based economy and remaining, blue-collar jobs underlie renewed debates about whether schools should emphasize career and technical training or college-preparatory curricula. We add a gendered lens to this issue, given the male-dominated nature of blue-collar jobs and women’s greater returns to college. Using the ELS:2002, this study exploits spatial variation in school curricula and jobs to investigate local dynamics that shape gender stratification. Results suggest a link between high school training and jobs in blue-collar communities that structures patterns of gender inequality into early adulthood. Although high school training in blue-collar communities reduces both men’s and women’s odds of four-year college enrollment, it has gender-divergent labor market consequences. Young men in blue-collar communities take more blue-collar courses, have higher rates of blue-collar employment, and earn similar wages compared to men from non-blue-collar communities. Women from blue-collar communities are less likely to work and be employed in professional occupations, and they suffer severe wage penalties relative to men and other women. These relationships are due partly to blue-collar community schools offering more blue-collar and fewer advanced college-preparatory courses. This curricular tradeoff may benefit men, but it appears to disadvantage women.
Sutton, April, Chandra Muller, and Amy Langenkamp. 2013. “High School Transfer Students and the Transition to College: Timing and the Structure of the School Year.” Sociology of Education 86(1):63-82. Link to article.
The timing of a high school transfer may shape students’ transitions to college through its (mis)alignment with the structure of the school year. A transfer that occurs during the summer interrupts the four-year high school career, whereas a transfer that occurs midyear disrupts both the four-year high school career and the structure of the school year. Using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS), the investigators find that the penalty suffered after the transfer depends on the degree to which students’ high school pathways synchronize with the curricular and extracurricular structure of the school year. Midyear transfer students appear to suffer the greatest postsecondary matriculation penalty. Students who transfer midyear are less likely to attend a four-year college compared with nontransfer and summer transfer students, whereas summer transfer students are less likely to attend a highly selective four-year college compared with their nontransfer counterparts. Curricular and extracurricular disruptions that transfer students experience after their school move explain some, but not all, of the negative associations observed between transferring and the transition to college. Directions for future research and the theoretical and policy implications of the results are discussed.
Sutton, April, Amy Langenkamp, Chandra Muller, and Kathryn S. Schiller. 2018. "Who Gets Ahead and Who Falls Behind During the Transition to High School? Academic Performance at the Intersection of Race/Ethnicity and Gender." Social Problems 65(2):154-173.
Academic stratification during educational transitions may be maintained, disrupted, or exacerbated. This study marks the first to use national data to investigate how the transition to high school (re)shapes academic status at the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender. We seek to identify the role of the high school transition in shaping racial/ethnic and gender stratification by contextualizing students’ academic declines during the high school transition within the longer window of their educational careers. Using Add Health, we find that white and Black boys experience the greatest drops in their grade point averages (GPAs). We also show that the maintenance of high academic grades between the 8th and 9th grades varies across racial/ethnic and gender subgroups; higher-achieving middle school Black boys experience the greatest academic downward mobility. Importantly, our results indicate that white and Black boys also faced academic declines before the high school transition, whereas their female student peers experienced academic declines only during the transition to high school. We advance current knowledge on educational stratification by identifying the transition to high school as a juncture in which boys’ academic disadvantage widens and high-achieving Black boys lose their academic status at the high school starting gate. Our study also underscores the importance of adopting an intersectional framework that considers both race/ethnicity and gender. Given the salience of high school grades for students’ long-term success, we discuss the implications of this study for racial/ethnic and gender stratification during and beyond high school.
Sutton, April. 2017. "Preparing for Local Labor: Curricular Stratification Across Local Economies in the United States." Sociology of Education 90(2):172-196. Link to article.
I investigate how the educational demands of local labor markets shape high school course offerings and student course taking. Using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 linked to the U.S. Census 2000, I focus on local economic variation in the share of jobs that do not demand a bachelor’s degree. I find that schools in local labor markets with higher concentrations of subbaccalaureate jobs devote a larger share of their course offerings to career and technical education (CTE) courses and a smaller share to advanced college-preparatory courses compared to schools in labor markets with lower concentrations of subbaccalaureate jobs, even net of school resources. Students in labor markets with higher concentrations of subbaccalaureate jobs take greater numbers of CTE courses, and higher-achieving students in these labor markets are less likely to take advanced math and Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate courses. These course-taking disparities are largely due to school course offerings. This study shows how local economic inequalities shape high school curricular stratification, and suggests that school curricula linked to the educational demands of local jobs delimits the college preparation opportunities of high-achieving students.
Sutton, April, Amanda Bosky, and Chandra Muller. 2016. "Manufacturing Gender Inequality in the New Economy: High School Training for Work in Blue-Collar Communities." American Sociological Review 81(4):720-748. Link to article.
Tensions between the demands of the knowledge-based economy and remaining, blue-collar jobs underlie renewed debates about whether schools should emphasize career and technical training or college-preparatory curricula. We add a gendered lens to this issue, given the male-dominated nature of blue-collar jobs and women’s greater returns to college. Using the ELS:2002, this study exploits spatial variation in school curricula and jobs to investigate local dynamics that shape gender stratification. Results suggest a link between high school training and jobs in blue-collar communities that structures patterns of gender inequality into early adulthood. Although high school training in blue-collar communities reduces both men’s and women’s odds of four-year college enrollment, it has gender-divergent labor market consequences. Young men in blue-collar communities take more blue-collar courses, have higher rates of blue-collar employment, and earn similar wages compared to men from non-blue-collar communities. Women from blue-collar communities are less likely to work and be employed in professional occupations, and they suffer severe wage penalties relative to men and other women. These relationships are due partly to blue-collar community schools offering more blue-collar and fewer advanced college-preparatory courses. This curricular tradeoff may benefit men, but it appears to disadvantage women.
- Selected Media Coverage: The Atlantic, U.S. News and World Report, Forbes, The Seattle Times
Sutton, April, Chandra Muller, and Amy Langenkamp. 2013. “High School Transfer Students and the Transition to College: Timing and the Structure of the School Year.” Sociology of Education 86(1):63-82. Link to article.
The timing of a high school transfer may shape students’ transitions to college through its (mis)alignment with the structure of the school year. A transfer that occurs during the summer interrupts the four-year high school career, whereas a transfer that occurs midyear disrupts both the four-year high school career and the structure of the school year. Using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS), the investigators find that the penalty suffered after the transfer depends on the degree to which students’ high school pathways synchronize with the curricular and extracurricular structure of the school year. Midyear transfer students appear to suffer the greatest postsecondary matriculation penalty. Students who transfer midyear are less likely to attend a four-year college compared with nontransfer and summer transfer students, whereas summer transfer students are less likely to attend a highly selective four-year college compared with their nontransfer counterparts. Curricular and extracurricular disruptions that transfer students experience after their school move explain some, but not all, of the negative associations observed between transferring and the transition to college. Directions for future research and the theoretical and policy implications of the results are discussed.
