Replication data for: The distribution of educational opportunities in Massachusetts, 1996

This thesis examines the relationship between community characteristics and one measure of educational opportunity, the secondary school curriculum, in a sample including most (221) Massachusetts secondary schools. Four curriculum characteristics are measured: curriculum breadth, depth, differentiation (loosely, ability grouping or tracking), and passage rates on College Board Advanced Placement (AP) Examinations. Quantitative analysis demonstrates that increased school size (measured as grade c ohort size) is positively related to every curriculum characteristic, with grade cohorts below 100 students substantially reducing AP participation. Community education levels are positively related to curriculum depth and AP participation, although only indirectly (via expenditures) related to breadth. Expenditures predict curriculum breadth, but are weakly related to AP participation and insignificantly related to curriculum depth and differentiation. Increased community heterogeneity decreases the extent of curriculum differentiation. Competition from neighboring public schools is an insignificant predictor of curriculum. These results suggest that expenditures are not a proxy for educational quality, that small schools offer fewer curriculum opportunities than medium-sized schools, and that curriculum differentiation is not a response to social stratification. Interviews with educators in two districts suggest several explanations for these findings and offer new perspectives on curriculum development. While new courses face implementation obstacles, schools engage in incremental curriculum policy making, generally continuing past offerings with sufficient student interest. Traditional courses are consciously protected from expenditure variations, although annual variations may reduce curriculum quality by curtailing instructional supplies . Seniority rules also affect the curriculum, as seniority ladders in each department constrain hiring and firing of teachers. During periods of expansion departments may offer new courses at the instigation of department chairpersons and individual teachers, while periods of contraction may be marked by curriculum stagnation associated with the loss of staff expertise and inability to hire new teachers. Policy makers are urged to construct and publicize a database on curriculum and other school services, avoid the use of expenditures per pupil as a proxy for educational quality, maintain curriculum standards as a counterweight against unexamined local traditions, and increase the effective cohort size of small schools.