Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - D1120021
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED339297 AUTHOR: Arnold, Karen D.
TITLE: Gender, Race, and Academic Talent: The Postsecondary
Experiences of High School Valedictorians. ASHE Annual
Meeting Paper.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1991
NOTE: 24 p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the
Association for the Study of Higher Education (Boston, MA,
October 31-November 3, 1991). The research reported in this
paper was conducted collaboratively with Terry Denny
(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).
ABSTRACT: This paper presents some of the findings of the
Illinois Valedictorian Project, a longitudinal study of 81
top high school students just completing its 10th year. In
particular the effects of gender, race, academic talent,
and the relationship of undergraduate experiences to early
adult achievement and tacit knowledge were examined. Data
was collected through five to six semi-structured
interviews and periodic questionnaires. The first 5 years
revealed gender differences in intellectual self-esteem and
career aspirations with females lowering their estimate of
their intelligence over their college years. Women also
showed concern about combining career and family and
planned to interrupt their future labor force participation
for child rearing. At the 10 year mark gender differences
were evident with women either out of the labor force due
to child rearing or generally employed in female dominated
fields while men were in business and technical fields.
Three individual case studies are included: two women and
one African American male. These studies highlight the
research findings indicating that women and minority
valedictorians lacked tacit knowledge about how to build
careers and were constrained in career development by lack
of support and role models. Included are 10 references.
(JB)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Academic-Aptitude; Career-Awareness; Child
Rearing; Gifted-; High-Achievement; Higher-Education; High
Schools; Labor-Force-Nonparticipants; Longitudinal-Studies;
Self-Esteem; Self-Evaluation-Individuals; Work-Attitudes
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Career-Development; *High-School-Seniors;
*Racial-Differences; *Sex-Differences; *Success-
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