Beyond College For All: Career Paths for the Forgotten Half

Chapter 8. Are Noncognitive Behaviors in School Related to Later Life Outcomes?

170 Chapter 8 Are Noncognitive Behaviors in School Related to Later Life Outcomes? A s we have seen in the previous chapters, employers place a high priority on noncognitive behaviors—such as work habits (NCEQW 1994)—that they have great difficulty inferring from available information (Bishop 1993).1 However, employers doubt that students’ behaviors in school are relevant to the work setting (chapter 6). Many employers dismiss school grades as merely indicating that a student has learned academic trivia (like historical dates), not the knowledge or work habits needed in the work world. Employers also mistrust the subjectivity of grades (although they often base workers’ pay on supervisors’ opinions). Employers say that workers’ attendance, discipline, effort, and participation affect their job performance, but they doubt the relevance of high school behaviors . Do students’ attendance, discipline, effort, and participation in high school predict their later job performance? More generally, are students’ noncognitive behaviors in high school related to their later life attainments? Cognitive effects on attainments have been studied extensively (Heyns 1974; Jencks et al. 1972; Murnane , Willett, and Levy 1995), but noncognitive effects are rarely studied . Indeed, the status-attainment models that incorporate social psychological factors do not include noncognitive behaviors (Sewell 1971; Sewell and Hauser 1975). These models emphasize ability as a factor limiting achievement, and only a few show any indication that noncognitive behaviors might vary across individuals or affect attainments (Buchmann 1989; Jencks et al. 1979; Smith 1967). It is unclear how teachers, colleges, and employers respond to noncognitive behaviors in high school. Although teachers threaten to penalize bad behavior, they often do not act on their threats, or do so Noncognitive Behaviors in School Related to Outcomes 171 inconsistently (Sedlak et al. 1986). Nor is it clear how much students’ noncognitive behaviors in school are related to later life outcomes. Some colleges consider noncognitive factors in college admissions, but many colleges are not selective, and some advocates of open admissions argue that poor behaviors arise from the low challenge in high schools and should not limit college access. Not surprisingly, students are confused. They cannot tell whether their attendance, discipline, effort, and participation will affect their grades, college attainments, or earnings. This chapter examines these issues. First, we examine whether noncognitive behaviors are related to grades. Although formally defined as academic achievement, grades may also have a noncognitive component if teachers penalize poor behavior. This study examines whether grades reflect the kinds of noncognitive behaviors that employers say they value. Second, we examine whether noncognitive behaviors are related to educational attainments. Open-admissions policies and study skills courses may reduce the impact of high school behaviors. Third, we examine whether noncognitive behaviors are related to earnings. Although employers are very disturbed by evidence of a poor work ethic, they see schools as setting boring and artificial tasks for students, and they do not believe that school behaviors provide any indication of how youth will perform at work. From a sociological perspective, employers’ disregard for high school behaviors and grades is puzzling. High school plays a central role in socializing youth, informing them about societal demands, teaching them how to succeed in meeting those demands, and letting them know how they are doing at mastering those demands. However , if high school behaviors are regarded as irrelevant by colleges and employers, and if they have no impact on students’ college and work attainments, then high schools may not be making the right demands on students, and students may see no reasons to acquire good work habits in high school. This chapter examines these issues. Previous Research on Noncognitive Effects While many social scientists were studying IQ (and whether it was genetically determined), Bowles and Gintis (1976) made the radical proposal that IQ is less important than noncognitive behaviors. They proposed that schools’ main function is to develop noncognitive characteristics to prepare individuals to fit into the work world. They argued that the same type of behaviors are rewarded in school and work. Their empirical research found that noncognitive behaviors 172 Beyond College for All outweigh achievement as predictors of grades, and that these behaviors mediate the influence of social class background. Michael Olneck and David Bills (1980) partially supported Bowles and Gintis’s contention that noncognitive factors have a significant impact on grades. They found that teachers’ ratings of students’ industriousness (hard work and effort) and cooperativeness (getting along with others and responsiveness to authority) had...