Differences Between Black and White Students in Curriculum Program Status

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-1982

Description

Recent critics of the comprehensive community college have charged that these institutions are heavily engaged in a process of educational tracking. In this investigation, curriculum enrollments of 9907 black and white students in the North Carolina Community College System were compared, using U.S. Census socioeconomic status scores to represent the statuses of specific educational programs in which students were enrolled. The data were drawn from a larger survey of students that was conducted during the spring 1979 quarter. The results showed that there is some evidence that status hierarchies exist in the broader college transfer, technical, and vocational programs in the community college system. However, black and white student enrollment differences within each of these hierarchies did not appear to be as great as critics have maintained. The results indicate that female students, particularly black females, may be at a greater status disadvantage in program enrollments than their male counterparts.

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