AUTHORS: Julian Betts and Heather Rose

PAGES: 78     DATE: October 1999

ABSTRACT: This study will examine the role that curriculum plays in determining the academic achievement and labor market performance of public high school students in the United States. Specifically, it will examine the relationship between mathematics curriculum and students' subsequent wages. As an alternative outcome measure, we use educational attainment, such as whether a student graduates from high school or attends college. Once the curriculum effects are determined, the analysis will focus on the key issues of how and why curriculum varies across different socioeconomic and ethnic groups. Do schools that have higher teacher-pupil ratios and more highly qualified teachers offer the average student a richer curriculum? Do such schools do a better job at providing a rigorous curriculum to disadvantaged students or to students whose initial test scores are relatively low? Can variations in curriculum explain why so many disadvantaged students "leak" out of the education pipeline before graduating from high school or attending college? The study will use data from the High School and Beyond sophomore cohort, including the restricted-use Transcript Survey, to answer these questions.

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