Abstract
Previous educational attainment research in the fields of educational stratification, urban sociology and educational tracking studies lacked an interdisciplinary approach, and hence was unable to explain the rural-urban gap in college attainment in Taiwan. Using data from the 1997, 2002 and 2007 Taiwan Social Change Surveys with multilevel logistic regression, this paper will analyze the influence of urbanization processes and the history of higher educational expansion. Following, the hypotheses of cluster effect and neighborhood effect will be examined to figure out the precise social mechanism forming the urban-rural gap, and the role of tracking in shaping this gap will be also analyzed. Statistical results show that the rural-urban gap had been persistent during the whole process of educational expansion from 1978 to 2007. Secondly, it will be shown that the rural-urban gap in college attainment is created by differences in population density in the area of residence of individuals rather than being a result of the higher percentage of highly-educated population in that area. The critical significance of population density is further supported by random effect examination. These results strongly argue in support of the cluster effect on college attainment rather than neighborhood effect. Lastly, compared to senior high students, vocational students will increase the likelihood of college attainment if they live in areas with a higher percentage of highly educated people. However, the educational expansion eliminated this effect by rapidly providing numerous educational opportunities for them. To sum up, the formation of the rural-urban gap in college attainment in Taiwan is persistently determined by cluster effect in spite of educational expansion. The unique effect on vocational students from the percentage of highly educated people had been removed under this expansion.