We ask whether patterns of racial ethnic and socioeconomic stratification in educational attainment are amplified or attenuated when we take a longer view of educational careers. We propose a model of staged advantage to understand how educational inequalities evolve over the life course. Distinct from cumulative advantage, staged advantage asserts that inequalities in education ebb and flow over the life course as the population at risk of making each educational transition changes along with the constraints they confront in seeking more education. Results based on data from the 2014 follow up of the sophomore cohort of High School and Beyond offer partial support for our hypotheses. The educational attainment process was far from over for our respondents as they aged through their 30s and 40s: More than 6 of 10 continued their formal training during this period, and 4 of 10 earned an additional credential. Patterns of educational stratification at midlife became more pronounced in some ways as women pulled further ahead of men in their educational attainments and parental education (but not income), and high school academic achievement continued to shape educational trajectories at the bachelor’s degree level and beyond. However, African Americans gained on whites during this life phase through continued formal (largely academic) training and slightly greater conditional probabilities of graduate or professional degree attainment; social background fails to predict earning an associate’s degree. These results, showing educational changes and transitions far into adulthood, have implications for our understanding of the complex role of education in stratification processes.

我们要问，当我们以更长远的眼光看待教育事业时，教育程度中的种族、民族和社会经济分层模式是否会被放大或减弱。我们提出了一个阶段性优势模型，以了解教育不平等在生命历程中如何演变。与累积优势不同，阶段性优势断言，随着面临每次教育转型风险的人口以及他们在寻求更多教育时面临的限制发生变化，教育不平等会在生命历程中潮起潮落。基于 2014 年高中二年级及以上学生群体随访数据的结果为我们的假设提供了部分支持。对于 30 多岁和 40 多岁的受访者来说，教育获得过程远未结束：超过 10 人中的 6 人在此期间继续接受正规培训，10 人中的 4 人获得了额外的证书。中年时期的教育分层模式在某些方面变得更加明显，因为女性在受教育程度和父母教育（但不是收入）方面进一步领先于男性，并且高中学业成绩继续塑造学士学位及更高水平的教育轨迹。然而，非洲裔美国人在这个生命阶段通过持续的正式（主要是学术）培训和获得研究生或专业学位的条件概率略高，而获得了白人的青睐；社会背景无法预测获得副学士学位。这些结果显示了教育的变化和成年期的过渡，对于我们理解教育在分层过程中的复杂作用具有重要意义。