Trends in black-white differences in educational expectations: 1980-92

This article evaluates changes in social background, resource constraints, and labor market incentives as complementary explanations for differences in the educational expectations of two cohorts of Black and Whites high school students. Although improvement in social background can account for part of the aggregate between-cohort increase in expectations, relative direct costs and labor market incentives are necessary to explain the remaining increase, why Black students adjusted expectations were higher than White students', why students' expectations increased more than did Black students', and why the expectations of Black students of both cohorts were more likely to increase between the sophomore and senior years of high school.