Education and Midlife Cognitive Functioning: Evidence from the High School and Beyond Cohort

Educational gradients in midlife cognitive functioning are widely recognized. This research seeks to answer the specifics: what is it about education that contributes to cognitive inequalities? The attributes of adolescents’ schools shape their cognitive functioning at midlife‒mainly because they shape students’ test scores, grades, and degree attainments. The latter all independently predict midlife cognitive functioning.