TY  - JOUR
AU  - Jacob,Brian A.
AU  - Wilder,Tamara
TI  - Educational Expectations and Attainment
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15683
PY  - 2010
Y2  - January 2010
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15683
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15683.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Brian Jacob
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
University of Michigan
735 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Tel: 734-615-6994
Fax: NA
E-Mail: bajacob@umich.edu

Tamara Wilder
University of Michigan
Weill Hall 
735 S. State #5307 
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-3091 
E-Mail: wildert@umich.edu
AB  - This paper examines the role of educational expectations in the educational attainment process. We utilize data from a variety of datasets to document and analyze the trends in educational expectations between the mid-1970s and the early 2000s.  We focus on differences across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups and examine how young people update their expectations during high school and beyond.  The results indicate that expectations rose for all students with the greatest increases among young women.  Expectations have become somewhat less predictive of attainment over the past several decades but expectations remain strong predictors of attainment above and beyond other standard determinants of schooling. Interestingly, the data demonstrate that the majority (about 60 percent) of students update their expectations at least once between eighth grade and eight years post-high school. Updating appears to be based, in part, on the acquisition of new information about academic ability.
ER  -