DOCUMENT RESUME ED 265 901 EA 018 512 AUTHOR Gamoran, Adam TITLE The Stratification of High School Learning Opportunities. SPONS AGENCY Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC.; Wisconsin Univ., Madison. Graduate School. PUB DATE 18 Apr 86 GRANT OERI-G-86-0007 NOTE 54p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (70th, San ,Francisco, CA, April 16-20, 1986). PUB TYPE Speeches/Conference Papers (150) -- Reports - Research /Technical (143) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Ability Grouping; *Access to Education; College Preparation; Curriculum Dezign; *Educationally Disadvantaged; Educational Needs; *Educational Opportunities; *Educational Status Comparison; Equal Education; General Education; Longitudinal Studies; Secondary Education; *Track System (Education) IDENTIFIERS High School and Beyond (NCES) ABSTRACT This paper suggests that students' opportunities to learn may I , stratified both between and within schools. Schools serving a more affluent and able clientele may offer more rigorous and enriched programs of study, and students in college preparatory curricular programs may have greater access to advanced courses within schools. This notion is tested with a longitudinal, nationally representative sample of public school students from the High School and Beyond data set. The results show few effects of school composition and offerings between schools, but important within-school influences of curricular tracking and course taking. In most cases, the difference in achievement between tracks exceeds the gap between students in school and dropouts, suggesting that students' choice of courses in school may be even more important for the development of cognitive skills than whether one is in school or not. References and 10 data tables are included. (Author/TE) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ***********************************************************************