Discontinuities in schooling and educational attainment

Duncan et al. (1972, p. 224) insightfully pointed out that the timing of events in the process of socioeconomic achievement can be as important as the events themselves. While we know that substantial numbers of people delay their entry into college, and interrupt their college education once begun, no comprehensive national study has established the causes and consequences of these discontinuities in schooling.Using a structural equation model of educational attainment patterned after Featherman and Carter (1976), this article investigates educational discontinuities among American whites and blacks, males and females, using data from a nationwide, longitudinal study of the U.S. high school graduating class of 1972.