Ch. 12-Education
I.
Inequalities in Schooling
Class Differences in Early Childhood
Many social scientists that begun to focus attention to
inequalities in children’s earliest experiences within the
home environment to explain educational inequality. Hart
and Risley’s study of the effects of home environment on
learning resulted in the following:
Children in professional families had the most
significant gains in early learning outcomes associated
with language/vocabulary, critical thinking, and
responsiveness to the learning environment. A child’s
learning experience is dramatically affected by the
social class of their parents.
Preschool: several intensive preschool programs have shown
impressive results in terms of changing children’s educational
outcomes by changing the cognitive culture that they
experience when they are very young.
Achievement gaps relative to race and ethnic differences,
although partially explained by differences in early
childhood experiences, grow larger as children progress
through school. This suggests that unequal learning
opportunities in school are important factors driving
educational inequality.
Studies conducted by Entwisle, Alexander, and Olsen
suggest that students learn better and more during a
school year rather than during summer months.
Students from higher SES categories learn at the same
rate during the school year; but higher SES students
continue their learning process during summer months
due to access to enrichment programs compared to
students from lower SES, who do not have similar
opportunities.
Inequality within School: Tracking and Student Outcomes
A cumulative advantage exists in education. Higher
performing students receive more learning opportunities
than lower performing students; and are thus awarded with
more educational opportunities over time.
Students of higher social class enjoy better educational
opportunities, complete more years of schooling, get better
grades and are usually placed in higher tracks.
Race: Blacks score lower with higher rates of being left back,
suspended or expelled. Achievement gags can be explained by
social class. When factoring out class differences, AfricanAmericans had a greater chance of graduating from high school,
were 44% less likely to be held back a grade and were equally
likely to be held back as white students (Conley, 1999).
Ethnicity
Hispanics score lower on tests, have higher rates of repeating
grades and are expelled at higher rates than white students.
Asians score consistently higher on tests of math ability, have
higher GPA’s and have higher rates of going to college than
non-Asian students.
Gender
Girls now are surpassing boys in educational attainment. Girls
are less likely to drop out of high school or be left back. They
earn more degrees than males, except for doctoral degrees.
This does not pay off in the workplace. Women still earn less
than men in the workplace.
II.
The Coleman Report
1. Differences in resources did not affect achievement gaps in
education. Smaller class size was better than larger classes.
Two factors were important:
a. family background
b. peers
2. Private vs Public schools
Private schools were better than public schools but of the
private schools, Catholic schools were the most successful,
especially in poorer or minority neighborhoods. Catholic
schools are the least expensive of the private schools. They are
more successful due to the social capital in the community.