Do skills and behaviors in high school matter? The contribution of noncognitive factors in explaining differences in educational attainment and earnings

Abstract

Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), this study examines the unique and collective impact of cognitive skills and noncognitive behaviors in high school on educational attainment and earnings for a tenth grade cohort, 10 years later in 2000. The results indicate that students with better social skills, work habits, and who participated in extracurricular activities in high school had higher educational attainment and earnings, even after controlling for cognitive skills. Skills and behaviors in high school also explain a substantial portion of the socioecononomic, sex, and racial and ethnic gaps in educational attainment and earnings.

Introduction

During the late 1970s, Bowles and Gintis (1976) published Schooling in Capitalist America, which boldly claimed that individual’s noncognitive behaviors were perhaps more important than cognitive skills in determining stratification outcomes. While early sociological theories of status attainment (“Wisconsin” model) posited that academic performance, and to a lesser extent mental ability, were important mechanisms linking parental socioeconomic background to employment outcomes in adulthood (Sewell and Hauser, 1975, Sewell et al., 1969, Woelfel and Haller, 1971), Bowles and Gintis (1976, pp. 122–123) argued that social class reproduction was mainly due to differential patterns of behavioral socialization within and across schools. In addition, they suggested that the kinds of behaviors employers sought out in the labor market were the same as those fostered and rewarded by teachers and schools in the educational system. In related work, Jencks and his colleagues (1979) also demonstrated the importance of noncognitive behaviors and personality traits. They found that industriousness, leadership, and good study habits in high school were positively associated with higher occupational attainment and earnings, even after controlling for social class.

In the time period since Bowles, Gintis and Jencks, researchers have extensively examined the effects of cognitive ability, often measured by standardized achievement tests, on employment outcomes, but rarely examined the effects of noncognitive behaviors on educational and occupational success (Kerckhoff et al., 2001, Farkas et al., 1997, Raudenbush and Kasim, 1998, Farkas, 2003). As a result, little is known about what kinds of behaviors and skills, other than cognitive, are fostered and rewarded during the schooling experience that influence later success in the labor market. Nor do we know much about the extent to which differences in skills and habits account for racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and sex differences in educational and employment outcomes. This study follows up on the work of Jencks and his colleagues (1979) and extends prior work on the micro-processes involved in educational and labor market stratification by assessing the impact of a range of noncognitive behaviors, in addition to cognitive skills, on the educational attainment and earnings of a national cohort of tenth grade students, measured 10 years later in 2000. The results from this study indicate that noncognitive behaviors measured in high school have unique and significant effects on both educational attainment and earnings, even after controlling for cognitive skills. The results also show that skills and behaviors play an important role in explaining group differences in stratification outcomes. Finally, the results indicate that only part of the effect of cognitive skills and noncognitive behaviors on earnings is explained by increased educational attainment.