Showing papers in "Sociology Of Education in 2016"
TL;DR: This paper conducted interviews with 89 undergraduates at an elite university to understand how they engage authority figures in college, and found that the majority engaged authority figures with class-based engagement strategies.
Abstract: How do undergraduates engage authority figures in college? Existing explanations predict class-based engagement strategies. Using in-depth interviews with 89 undergraduates at an elite university, ...
195 citations
TL;DR: In the half century since the 1966 Coleman Report, scholars have yet to develop a consensus regarding the relationship between schools and inequality as discussed by the authors, which suggests that schools play a crucial role in inequality.
Abstract: In the half century since the 1966 Coleman Report, scholars have yet to develop a consensus regarding the relationship between schools and inequality. The Coleman Report suggested that schools play...
184 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined how social psychological factors, in particular, individuals' perceptions of schools with varying demogrific attributes, affect their perceptions of race segregation in U.S. schools.
Abstract: Racial segregation remains a persistent problem in U.S. schools. In this article, we examine how social psychological factors—in particular, individuals’ perceptions of schools with varying demogra...
141 citations
TL;DR: For example, this article found that nearly half the graduating seniors at the most selective universities head to a "non-selective" university, where they will be required to complete a course at least twice as many credits as their peers.
Abstract: Elite universities are credited as launch points for the widest variety of meaningful careers. Yet, year after year at the most selective universities, nearly half the graduating seniors head to a ...
120 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the key role of institutions in setting standards that determine the contingent value of cultural and social capital has been discussed, and the importance of institutions has been emphasized as well.
Abstract: Empirical research on cultural and social capital has generally ignored the key role of institutions in setting standards that determine the contingent value of this capital. Furthermore, many stud...
99 citations
TL;DR: The authors showed a statistically significant relationship between college completion and sociopolitical attitudes, and the effects of college completion on social outcomes were found to be independent of socio-economic well-being.
Abstract: Past research shows a statistically significant relationship between college completion and sociopolitical attitudes. However, recent scholarship suggests the effects of college on social outcomes ...
82 citations
TL;DR: This article examined how families' nearby school supply shapes and constrains their choices, finding that Hispanic, white, and black parents share a strong preference for academic performance, but differences in their choices can be traced to variation in nearby supply.
Abstract: Does ‘‘choosing a home’’ still matter for ‘‘choosing a school,’’ despite implementation of school choice policies designed to weaken this link? Prior research shows how the presence of such policies does little to solve the problems of stratification and segregation associated with residentially based enrollment systems, since families differ along racial/ethnic and socioeconomic lines in their access to, and how they participate in, the school choice process. We examine how families’ nearby school supply shapes and constrains their choices. Drawing on a unique dataset consisting of parents’ ranked preferences from among one urban district’s full menu of public schools, we find that Hispanic, white, and black parents share a strong preference for academic performance, but differences in their choices can be traced to variation in nearby supply. Our findings illustrate how the vastly different sets of schools from which parents can choose reproduce race-based patterns of stratification.
64 citations
TL;DR: For example, this article found that low-income and minority youth are now pursuing shorter-duration sub-baccalaureate credentials at for-profit trade and technical schools.
Abstract: Increasing numbers of low-income and minority youth are now pursuing shorter-duration sub-baccalaureate credentials at for-profit trade and technical schools. However, many students drop out of the...
61 citations
TL;DR: This study uses decomposition and path analytic tools to show that boys’ higher average levels of behavior problems at age 4 to 5 years help explain the current gender gap in schooling by age 26 to 29, controlling for other observed early childhood factors.
Abstract: Why do men in the United States today complete less schooling than women? One reason may be gender differences in early self-regulation and prosocial behaviors. Scholars have found that boys’ early behavioral disadvantage predicts their lower average academic achievement during elementary school. In this study, I examine longer-term effects: Do these early behavioral differences predict boys’ lower rates of high school graduation, college enrollment and graduation, and fewer years of schooling completed in adulthood? If so, through what pathways are they linked? I leverage a nationally representative sample of children born in the 1980s to women in their early to mid-20s and followed into adulthood. I use decomposition and path analytic tools to show that boys’ higher average levels of behavior problems at age 4 to 5 years help explain the current gender gap in schooling by age 26 to 29, controlling for other observed early childhood factors. In addition, I find that early behavior problems predict outcom...
58 citations
TL;DR: On the basis of theories of cultural reproduction and rational choice, the authors examined whether access to study-abroad opportunities is socially selective and whether this pattern changed during education, and found that the pattern changed over time.
Abstract: On the basis of theories of cultural reproduction and rational choice, we examine whether access to study-abroad opportunities is socially selective and whether this pattern changed during educatio...
58 citations
TL;DR: This work estimates the degree to which mothers’ skills measured in early adulthood confound the relationship between their economic resources and their children’s postsecondary education outcomes.
Abstract: Parental income and wealth contribute to children's success but are at least partly endogenous to parents' cognitive and noncognitive skills. We estimate the degree to which mothers' skills measured in early adulthood confound the relationship between their economic resources and their children's postsecondary education outcomes. Analyses of NLSY79 suggest that maternal cognitive and noncognitive skills attenuate half of parental income's association with child baccalaureate college attendance, a fifth of its association with elite college attendance, and a quarter of its association with bachelor's degree completion. Maternal skills likewise attenuate a third of parental wealth's association with children's baccalaureate college attendance, half of its association with elite college attendance, and a fifth of its association with bachelor's degree completion. Observational studies of the relationship between parents' economic resources and children's postsecondary attainments that fail to account for parental skills risk seriously overstating the benefits of parental income and wealth.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors hypothesize that employers respond to an associate's degree itself over the institution from which it came and find that employers responded similarly to applicants who listed a degree from a fictional college and applicants listing a local for-profit or nonprofit institution.
Abstract: In recent years, private for-profit education has been the fastest growing segment of the U.S. postsecondary system. Traditional hiring models suggest that employers clearly and efficiently evaluate college credentials, but this changing institutional landscape raises an important question: How do employers assess credentials from emerging institutions? Building on theories of educational authority, we hypothesize that employers respond to an associate’s degree itself over the institution from which it came. Using data from a field experiment that sent applications to administrative job openings in three major labor markets, we found that employers responded similarly to applicants listing a degree from a fictional college and applicants listing a local for-profit or nonprofit institution. There is some evidence that educational authority is incomplete, but employers who prefer degree-holders do not appear to actively evaluate institutional quality. We conclude by discussing implications of our work for r...
TL;DR: This article found that students in mixed-ability groups tend to attribute their mathematics performance to their teachers and to (bad) luck, whereas vocational-and academic-track students are more likely to blame themselves for not doing well.
Abstract: Country rankings based on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) invite politicians and specialists to speculate about the reasons their countries did well or failed to do well. Rarely, however, do we hear from the students on whose performance these rankings are based. This omission is unfortunate for two reasons. First, research suggests that how students explain their academic performance has important consequences for their future achievements. Second, prior studies show that students’ attributions of success and failure in education can develop into explanations for social inequalities in adulthood. This article draws on PISA 2012 data on 128,110 secondary school students in 24 countries to explore how educational stratification shapes students’ explanations of their academic performance. I find that students in mixed-ability groups tend to attribute their mathematics performance to their teachers and to (bad) luck, whereas vocational- and academic-track students are more likely to blame themselves for not doing well. These differences between mixed-ability group students and tracked students are more pronounced in school systems where tracking is more extensive. I conclude by discussing how these findings speak to the broader impact of educational stratification on students’ psychology and cognition and the legitimation of inequalities.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that education is a key sociological variable in the explanation of health and health disparities, and that conventional wisdom emphasizes a life course-human capital perspective with expectations of causal effe...
Abstract: Education is a key sociological variable in the explanation of health and health disparities. Conventional wisdom emphasizes a life course–human capital perspective with expectations of causal effe...
TL;DR: This paper used an array of strategies to match curricula and instruction to students' heterogeneous skills, including tracking, to match curriculum and instruction with students' diverse skills, which is referred to as tracking.
Abstract: Schools use an array of strategies to match curricula and instruction to students’ heterogeneous skills. Although generations of scholars have debated ‘‘tracking’’ and its consequences, the literat...
TL;DR: This paper examined the effect of ability grouping on grades and the attainment of higher education and found that ability grouping dramatically increased ability in higher education, and that the ability grouping was associated with higher education attainment.
Abstract: To test the effect of ability grouping on grades and the attainment of higher education, this study examines a naturally occurring experimentan admission reform that dramatically increased ability ...
TL;DR: The plain fact that simple and unsophisticated peoples have unbounded faith in education does not mean that the faith is untenable as discussed by the authors, however, history shows that the intuitions of such folk may be nearer the truth than the weighty and carefully reasoned judgments of the learned and the wise.
Abstract: Like all simple and unsophisticated peoples we Americans have a sublime faith in education. . . .The bare fact, however, that simple and unsophisticated peoples have unbounded faith in education does not mean that the faith is untenable. History shows that the intuitions of such folk may be nearer the truth than the weighty and carefully reasoned judgments of the learned and the wise. (Counts 1932:3)
TL;DR: The authors explored the mechanisms underlying processes of educational policy formation and argued that diffusion of global policy ideas and practices provides the menu of possible policies, while within-country struggles over legitimacy in the policy domain serve as a mechanism shaping which items on the menu becomes actual policy.
Abstract: This study explores mechanisms underlying processes of educational policy formation. Previous studies have given much attention to processes of diffusion when accounting for educational policy formation. Less account has been given to the day-to-day institutional dynamics through which educational policies develop and change. Building on extensive governmental archival data, complemented with interviews and media analysis, I study the development and transformation of school violence policies in Israel. I argue that diffusion of global policy ideas and practices provides the menu of possible policies, while within-country struggles over legitimacy in the policy domain serve as a mechanism shaping which items on the menu becomes actual policy. Specifically, in the Israeli case, the interest in and action toward school violence were influenced by a global trend, but the actions of Psychological-Counseling Services (PCS) who struggled to assert their legitimacy as the authority on school violence in the Israeli Ministry of Education (MOE) shaped the adoption, rejection, and institutionalization of the specific school violence policy ideas and practices. Language: en
TL;DR: This article found that children learn more during the school year than during the summer and poor children benefit more than wealthy children from being in school during the academic year, and that the compensatory effect of school exposure likely emerges because the household environments that poor children experience during the year are less educationally enriching than those experienced by their wealthy peers.
Abstract: This thoughtful and stimulating article reflects on the central question posed by the Coleman Report: What role do schools play in promoting equality of opportunity? The Coleman Report relied on analysis of variance and regression analysis, but over the past 50 years, social scientists have developed new tools to address this question. The counterfactual revolution has made us aware of the bias emerging from advantaged families selecting into better schools, tracks, teachers, and peers, and it offers experiments and natural experiments to examine the causal effects of schools, and schools’ instructional and organizational resources, on student outcomes. Although still mostly restricted to test scores, the outcomes examined are, auspiciously, expanding to other domains, including children’s health and well-being and longer-term outcomes such as employment and earnings. Approaches using a counterfactual formulation include, for example, assignment of students to schools via lottery, random allocation of teachers, comparisons in learning between the summer and the school year, and variation across time and state in universal preschool and kindergarten provision (for an excellent review, see Raudenbush and Eschmann 2015). Although these approaches are far from perfect—important concerns include generalizability, partial versus general equilibrium outcomes, and adequate functional form—they hold promise to accumulate evidence about which dimensions of the educational environment matter most and for which children. In what follows, I both depart from Downey and Condron (DC) about what the focus of research using the counterfactual approach should be and wholeheartedly agree with them about the need to consider socioeconomic and ethno-racial gaps before children start school. DC focus on the summer learning perspective, which compares learning during the school year and the summer recess among elementary school children. Studies using this creative natural experiment offer two findings: All children learn more during the school year than during the summer, and poor children benefit more than wealthy children from being in school during the academic year. This compensatory effect of school exposure likely emerges because the household environments that poor children experience during the summer are less educationally enriching than those experienced by their wealthy peers. It is important to understand the contours and implications of these findings (as of any finding using a counterfactual approach!). As DC indicate, the relevant counterfactual here is ‘‘What would inequality look like if schools did not exist?’’ rather than ‘‘How well would a particular student perform if they attended school A versus school B?’’ But a ‘‘world without schools’’ is not a meaningful counterfactual for the vast majority of elementary school children in the United States and other rich countries. Thus, the summer learning approach is only relevant in two distinct settings: for considering a policy extending the U.S. school year into the summer months and in some developing countries where elementary school enrollment is not yet universal. I submit, however, that in other settings, the question about ‘‘school A versus school B’’—or,
TL;DR: The authors argue that the sociology of education has paid inadequate attention to how the broader social context generates cognitive disparities, and they suggest that schools serving children from disadvantaged backgrounds still need improvement, but they do not intend to dismiss or undermine efforts to improve schools serving disadvantaged children.
Abstract: Gamoran, Carter, and Schneider agree with our general point, that schools do more to reduce than increase SES-based achievement gaps, but all three suggest that schools serving children from disadvantaged backgrounds still need improvement. We do not intend to dismiss or undermine efforts to improve schools serving disadvantaged children; rather, we argue that the sociology of education has paid inadequate attention to how the broader social context generates cognitive disparities. To understand why we emphasize reforming the broader social context as a way to reduce achievement gaps while acknowledging that school reform has value, consider an analogy. Marathon Runner A finishes an hour behind Runner B solely because Runner A started the race an hour late. Of course, in preparation for the next race, it would be possible for Runner A to close the gap by training harder to run at a faster pace, but the most straightforward way to reduce the gap would be to start the race at the same time. Similarly, additional school reforms could reduce SES-based achievement gaps, but we recommend working toward more equal skills at the starting line. We say this because large SES-based gaps in cognitive skills emerge before kindergarten even begins, and these gaps do not grow appreciably as children progress through school. Rather than commit to a renewed focus on poor children’s experiences in schools, as Schneider calls for, we encourage a new focus on understanding how the broader social context generates poor students’ disadvantage at kindergarten entry. Of course, schools may play a more pernicious role when it comes to black/white gaps in cognitive skills, as Gamoran and Schneider remind us. But even this case warrants a greater emphasis on the broader context because black/white gaps are significantly developed by kindergarten entry.
TL;DR: The Coleman Report as discussed by the authors found that black students were more likely to attend schools with other black students, they performed better academically when in non-segregated classrooms, teachers particularly in the South were less prepared than teachers in the North, and although ambitious, black students failed to attend college at the same rate as whites and Asians.
Abstract: Given fairly common comments by journal editors and reviewers who are quick to admonish studies that rely on findings from data sets before 2006, it is somewhat amazing that the Coleman Report, 50 years old this summer, continues to receive the attention it has. With over thousands of citations and on the college reading list of nearly every major education and sociology course, it is widely regarded as a classic of education sociology. This is particularly interesting in that Coleman considered the report among his least favorite educationrelated work. Coleman viewed the study as administratively driven (i.e., created by a bureaucratic fiat) as opposed to his other investigations where questions focused on a social system, such as a school (Coleman 1996). The survey for the Coleman Report was congressionally mandated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to examine differences in resources among schools that black and white student attended and their impact on achievement and attainment. Results showed that black students were more likely to attend schools with other black students, they performed better academically when in non-segregated classrooms, teachers particularly in the South were more likely to be less prepared than teachers in the North, and although ambitious, black students failed to attend college at the same rate as whites and Asians. Were these results due to school resources or something else? Using the statistical tools at hand, findings showed that family resources (income, education, and occupation—not family dynamics, which were not measured) were a greater perpetrator of inequality than were school resources, including measures such as per pupil expenditures, libraries, and laboratories. How and why these results became the mantra that schools do not matter in reducing inequality is difficult to explain, especially given that the study design omitted how school resources, such as the components of quality instruction, are individually distributed to students in schools. As a field, we have been trying to recast that refrain for the past five decades. ‘‘Fifty Years since the Coleman Report: Rethinking the Relationship between Schools and Inequality’’ makes the strong case that we cannot underestimate the importance and value of schools, especially instruction, in reducing inequality; I agree. But another issue suggests we are falling into the same trap as the conclusions of the Coleman Report, which examined children’s outcomes rather than combining that with the social context of the schools they attend. We are making a similar misstep by focusing too much on rising family income gaps instead of recognizing that gaps in achievement, especially for some minorities, remain indefensible in many schools and yet are amendable to intervention. Trying to compare the magnitude of gaps in family income with gaps in school performance is untenable—they are very different metrics. Society will have a difficult time controlling the first; the second, however, is ripe for change. Rising income gaps make great news stories, but sociologically they do not capitalize on the
TL;DR: The authors pointed out that educational institutions have direct effects on stratification beyond individual achievement and attainment, and that status-related variation in individual cognitive development is one component of effects on individual status transmission and overall inequality.
Abstract: Sociologists of education are generally believers in the institution and its potential. They thus compare it not to past and present alternatives but to meritocratic and equalitarian ideals. This supports reform but hinders analysis, narrowing unreasonably the issues under consideration. Downey and Condron (DC) make real progress by comparing schooling with alternatives. I suggest much further broadening of the relevant comparisons. Status-related variation in individual cognitive development is one component of effects on individual status transmission and overall inequality. Another component is individual participation and attainment. And educational institutions have direct effects on stratification beyond individual achievement and attainment.
TL;DR: For example, this article found that low SES students forget more than higher students during the summer than during the school year and that SES disparities in test performance widened between fall and spring in some schools and widening in others.
Abstract: Downey and Condron (2016) (DC) argue that the sociology of education suffers from a one-sided view of schools’ contribution to inequality. I agree that most sociologists who study what goes on inside schools tend to portray socioeconomic status (SES) disparities in the treatment of students and in student outcomes like achievement and behavior as evidence that schools perpetuate inequality. I also agree that the evidence on school-year versus summer learning that DC summarize suggests that disparities in academic achievement widen less during the months when children are in school than during the months when they are not in school. However, that fact may not suffice to persuade egalitarians that schools are more egalitarian than they had thought. Many egalitarians think schools should reduce—and ideally eliminate—disparities in academic achievement and behavior rather than just preventing such disparities from growing. Because those disparities do not disappear, many egalitarians think schools are not meeting their moral or social obligations. As always, however, one must also ask, ‘‘Compared to what?’’ Summer learning studies suggest that some combination of home environment, friendship networks, and neighborhood effects exacerbates SES disparities in test performance more than the average schoolroom does. The fact that sociologists who study what happens inside schools have not paid much attention to this finding, which has been widely known since 1978 when Barbara Heyns published Summer Learning and the Effects of Schooling, supports DC’s view that some kind of bias is at work. That said, many unanswered questions remain about what these findings tell us about the proximate causes of disparities in achievement and (mis)behavior. A first step toward answering that question would be to investigate whether SES disparities remain roughly constant from fall to spring in all schools and grades or whether the small average change in SES disparities during the school year conceals a lot of school-to-school variation around the average. If different schools or teachers have consistently different effects on SES disparities and the mean disparity does not change much during the school year, SES disparities must be narrowing between fall and spring in some schools and widening in others. If we could identity such schools, we could investigate how they differ. In particular, we could ask whether the school-to-school differences derive from teacher-to-teacher differences or are a product of school-wide factors. Another more difficult challenge is to look for systematic variation in what students forget over the summer. The existing literature tells us that low SES students forget more than higher SES students, but it does not tell us what kinds of things low SES students forget or what specific student characteristics affect forgetting. Efforts to identify summer activities that reduce low SES students’ test score decline have not yielded much durable knowledge (e.g., Heyns 1978). However, if low SES students really forget more over the summer, some components of SES (which tends to be a composite of low parental education, occupation, and income) likely matter more than others. The