Showing papers in "Sociology Of Education in 2015"
TL;DR: It is argued that even in a school promoting social mobility, teachers still reinforce class-based skills and behaviors that undermine success for middle-class children because of these schools’ emphasis on order as a prerequisite to raising test scores.
Abstract: No recent reform has had so profound an effect as no-excuses schools in increasing the achievement of low-income, black and Hispanic students. In the past decade, no-excuses schools-whose practices include extended instructional time, data-driven instruction, ongoing professional development, and a highly structured disciplinary system-have emerged as one of the most influential urban school-reform models. Yet almost no research has been conducted on the everyday experiences of students and teachers inside these schools. Drawing from 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork inside one no-excuses school and interviews with 92 school administrators, teachers, and students, I argue that even in a school promoting social mobility, teachers still reinforce class-based skills and behaviors. Because of these schools' emphasis on order as a prerequisite to raising test scores, teachers stress behaviors that undermine success for middle-class children. As a consequence, these schools develop worker-learners-children who monitor themselves, hold back their opinions, and defer to authority-rather than lifelong learners. I discuss the implications of these findings for market-based educational reform, inequality, and research on noncognitive skills.
193 citations
TL;DR: This article examined how school and district-level racial/ethnic and socioeconomic compositions influence schools' use of different types of criminalized and medicalized school discipline and found that schools and districts with relatively larger minority and poor populations are more likely to implement these types of discipline.
Abstract: In this article, the author examines how school- and district-level racial/ethnic and socioeconomic compositions influence schools’ use of different types of criminalized and medicalized school discipline. Using a large data set containing information on over 60,000 schools in over 6,000 districts, the authors uses multilevel modeling and a group-mean modeling strategy to answer several important questions about school discipline. First, how do school- and district-level racial and ethnic compositions influence criminalized school discipline and medicalization? Second, how do levels of school and district economic disadvantage influence criminalized school discipline and medicalization? Third, how does district-level economic disadvantage moderate the relationship between school racial/ethnic composition and criminalized school discipline and medicalization? The results generally support hypotheses that schools and districts with relatively larger minority and poor populations are more likely to implement...
145 citations
TL;DR: The gaps in 40-year median lifetime earnings among college graduates by field of study are larger, in many instances, than the median gap between high school graduates and college graduates overall.
Abstract: Our understanding about the relationship between education and lifetime earnings often neglects differences by field of study. Utilizing data that matches respondents in the Survey of Income and Program Participation to their longitudinal earnings records based on administrative tax information, we investigate the trajectories of annual earnings following the same individuals over 20 years and then estimate the long-term effects of field of study on earnings for U.S. men and women. Our results provide new evidence revealing large lifetime earnings gaps across field of study. We show important differences in individuals' earnings trajectories across the different stages of the work-life by field of study. In addition, the gaps in 40-year (i.e., ages 20 to 59) median lifetime earnings among college graduates by field of study are larger, in many instances, than the median gap between high school graduates and college graduates overall. Significant variation is also found among graduate degree holders. Our results uncover important similarities and differences between men and women with regard to the long-term earnings differentials associated with field of study. In general, these findings underscore field of study as a critical dimension of horizontal stratification in educational attainment. Other implications of the empirical findings are also discussed.
110 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a theory for how teacher agency can both change and maintain institutionalized instructional practices in schools is presented based on findings from one U.S. urban public school undergoing state-mandated reform.
Abstract: One reason reform does not dramatically change public schools is because instructional practices are highly institutionalized. This article advances a theory for how teacher agency can both change and maintain institutionalized instructional practices in schools. Based on findings from one U.S. urban public school undergoing state-mandated reform, I assert that three mechanisms drive a particular form of teacher agency. Whether these three mechanisms change or maintain institutionalized instructional practices depends on a set of counterbalancing forces that determine how much innovation versus socialization exists in peer learning; how much cohesion versus diversity is involved in community interactions; and how much cognitive and normative divergence versus convergence characterizes teachers’ shared understandings, aims, and practices. The theory provides a generalizable framework for the activities that help teachers drive outcomes in their schools and for the cognitive and social conditions that may b...
99 citations
TL;DR: The authors show that unexplained differences between high schools are larger for college attendance than for test scores, and while these apparent differences in high school effectiveness increase income disparities in college attendance, they reduce racial disparities.
Abstract: Do schools reduce or perpetuate inequality by race and family income? Most studies conclude that schools play only a small role in explaining socioeconomic and racial disparities in educational outcomes, but they usually draw this conclusion based solely on test scores. We reconsider this finding using longitudinal data on test scores and four-year college attendance among high school students in Massachusetts and Texas. We show that unexplained differences between high schools are larger for college attendance than for test scores. These differences are arguably caused by differences between the schools themselves. Furthermore, while these apparent differences in high school effectiveness increase income disparities in college attendance, they reduce racial disparities. Social scientists concerned with schools’ role in transmitting inequality across generations should reconsider the assumption that schools either increase or reduce all disparities and should direct attention to explaining why high school...
96 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors replicated and extended past research using new nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011 to find black-white test score gaps at kindergarten entry in 2010 in reading, math, and working memory.
Abstract: Black–white test score gaps form in early childhood and widen over elementary school. Sociologists have debated the roles that socioeconomic status (SES) and school quality play in explaining these patterns. In this study, I replicate and extend past research using new nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011. I find black–white test score gaps at kindergarten entry in 2010 in reading (SD = .32), math (SD = .54), and working memory (SD = .52 among children with valid scores). Math and reading gaps widened by approximately .06 standard deviations over kindergarten, but the working memory gap was constant. Multivariate regressions show that student SES explained the reading gap at school entry, but gap decompositions suggest that school quality differences were responsible for the widening of the reading gap over kindergarten. SES explained much of the math gap at school entry, but the widening of the math gap could not be explained by SES, school quality, or other hypotheses.
81 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the relationship between students' postsecondary aspirations and their propensity to get "cooled out" in community colleges and found that postsecondary students are more likely to drop out of community colleges.
Abstract: Sociologists of education have explored the relationship between students’ postsecondary aspirations and their propensity to get “cooled out” in community colleges. However, researchers have direct...
68 citations
TL;DR: The authors showed that minority, first-generation, and low-income students aspire to college; however, the college application process can present a significant obstacle for these students, and these students cannot always rely on their p...
Abstract: Many minority, first-generation, and low-income students aspire to college; however, the college application process can present a significant obstacle. These students cannot always rely on their p...
58 citations
TL;DR: For instance, this article found that when youth classify academic achievement in racial terms, institutions, including schools, may also be involved in race discrimination, and that institutions may also encourage race discrimination.
Abstract: Studies of when youth classify academic achievement in racial terms have focused on the racial classification of behaviors and individuals. However, institutions—including schools—may also be racia...
56 citations
TL;DR: This article investigated the impact of external differentiation and vocational orientation of (lower and upper) secondary education on country variation in the mean numeracy skills of, and skills gaps between, adults with low and intermediate formal qualifications.
Abstract: We investigate the impact of external differentiation and vocational orientation of (lower and upper) secondary education on country variation in the mean numeracy skills of, and skills gaps between, adults with low and intermediate formal qualifications. We use data on 30- to 44-year-olds in 18 countries from the 2011–12 round of the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies. We find that higher levels of external differentiation (tracking) amplify skills gaps between less- and intermediate-educated adults. This is mainly due to lower mean skills achievement of less-educated adults. By contrast, greater emphasis on vocational skills in upper-secondary education is positively related to numeracy skills for both less- and intermediate-educated adults. Gains are larger for the less educated, so the gap in numeracy skills tends to fall with the degree of vocational orientation. We discuss implications of our findings for research on educational and labor market inequalities.
53 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors use a unique data set that permits simultaneous estimation of neighborhoods and schools to identify the most important contextual influences on student academic outcomes, including school and neighborhood.
Abstract: Schools and neighborhoods are thought to be two of the most important contextual influences on student academic outcomes. Drawing on a unique data set that permits simultaneous estimation of neighb...
TL;DR: To comply with ideals of multiculturalism and diversity, postsecondary institutions incorporate Latino students into distinct campus cultures as mentioned in this paper, and these cultures influence how students interact with on-campus cultures.
Abstract: To comply with ideals of multiculturalism and diversity, postsecondary institutions incorporate Latino students into distinct campus cultures. These cultures influence how students interact with on...
TL;DR: The authors examined the growth and decline of specialist charter school mission statements and found that the majority of the mission statements focused on the creation of "innovative" schools, rather than innovation itself.
Abstract: By most media accounts, charter schools are innovative schools. But little empirical work interrogates this idea. We examine the growth and decline of specialist charter school mission statements a...
TL;DR: In this paper, the structural exclusion hypothesis was proposed to illustrate the unintended consequences of a state policy: the urban concentrated expansion of vocational upper secondary education, which makes the expanding opportunity inaccessible for most rural students but helps lower-achieving urban students remain in the "pipeline" for college.
Abstract: Despite the massive expansion of higher education in China since 1998, the cohort trends of urban and rural hukou holders in college attendance have widened sharply. Prevailing explanations emphasize the advantages of urban students over rural students in school quality and household financial resources. We propose the structural exclusion hypothesis that underscores the unintended consequences of a state policy: the urban concentrated expansion of vocational upper secondary education. This policy makes the expanding opportunity inaccessible for most rural students but helps lower-achieving urban students remain in the “pipeline” for college. We conduct a crucial test of these explanations by linking provincial-level enrollment statistics with individual-level models of the urban-rural trends in college attendance. The data are drawn from the 2006 Chinese General Social Survey and official statistics for 28 college admission districts over 14 college admission cohorts (1989-2002). Findings suggest that th...
TL;DR: The authors examined whether religious observance, religious worldview identification, and participation in a religious student organization are significantly related to cross-racial interaction (CRI), a form of bridging social capital, during college.
Abstract: Religion is the most segregated arena of American life, but its effect on collegiate diversity outcomes has been overlooked, despite the significance of both race and religion in many students’ lives. This study examines whether religious observance, religious worldview identification, and participation in a religious student organization are significantly related to cross-racial interaction (CRI), a form of bridging social capital, during college. The current study yielded largely positive relationships between general religiosity and CRI. General religiosity was also positively linked to CRI for Asian American, white, and black students. CRI was higher for students from minority religious backgrounds. Participation in campus religious groups was nonsignificant, regardless of the racial composition of the group. Findings are surprising given previous work that has mainly found negative relationships between religion and diversity-related outcomes in college. We discuss implications for the study of the c...
TL;DR: This paper analyzed mixed-methods data from a five-year study of 700 low-income mothers at two Louisiana community colleges and found that the cultural logics supporting continued plans for a return to college.
Abstract: Nearly all young people in the United States aspire to a college degree, but many fail to complete college in a timely manner. Does this lack of attainment reflect abandoned college plans? I analyze mixed-methods data from a five-year study of 700 low-income mothers at two Louisiana community colleges. Hurricane Katrina displaced respondents and interrupted their college educations; respondents had to decide whether, how, and why to return to school. Few women earned degrees during the study, but survey data indicate that the rate of reenrollment and intentions to complete were high. Interview data reveal the cultural logics supporting continued plans for a return to college. Instrumentally, respondents believed education would result in better employment. Expressively, the moral status afforded students supported respondents’ narratives of upward mobility despite the difficulties they faced. The logic of human capital investment dominates policy and academic discussions of education’s value, but I find t...
TL;DR: Racially diverse schools are often presented as places where students can learn to challenge racist discourse and practice as discussed by the authors. Yet there are a variety of processes through which such schools reproduce racism.
Abstract: Racially diverse schools are often presented as places where students can learn to challenge racist discourse and practice. Yet there are a variety of processes through which such schools reproduce...