Sociological Imagination: How to Gain Wisdom about the Society in which We All Participate and for Whose Future We Are All Responsible (part 42)

I'm a huge feminist, I majored in sociology at college, and I care about what I put into the world.

Beanie Feldstein

Education (part C)

by

Charles Lamson

 Attainment, Achievement, and Equality

Although some educational reformers focus on the need to expand learning opportunities through nonschool service experiences, most Scholars and administrators seek improvement in educational institutions themselves. Their efforts often focus on educational attainment, or the number of years of schooling that students receive, and educational achievement, or the amount of learning that actually takes place. Both aspects of education are closely linked to economic inequality and social mobility.

Educational Attainment In any discussion of education as a major social institution, the concept of educational attainment (number of years of school completed) holds a central place. Educational attainment is correlated with income, occupation, prestige, attitudes and opinions, and much else. It is essential, therefore, for social scientists to understand the impact of recent trends in school enrollment on the educational attainment of the population as a whole and the various subgroups of the population. The high school completion rate is the highest in U.S. history. For the first time in U.S. history, 90% of the population aged 25 and older have completed high school. This is according to educational attainment data released Dec. 14, 2017 from the U.S. Census Bureau. In 1940, less than half of the population aged 25 and older had a high school diploma. Over the years this has increased to the point where we now have 90% who have completed high school, said Kurt Baumann, a demographer in the social, economic and housing statistics division. That means out of the 217 million people aged 25 and older, 194 million have a high school diploma or higher. Between 2000 and 2017, the percentage of all people aged 25 and older who had not completed high school decreased by more than one-third dropping from 16% to 10% (Dec. 14, 2017, High School Completion Rate Is Highest in U.S. History. The United States Census Bureau).  As high school educational attainment increased for the nation as a whole, attainment for minority populations also increased. Over the same time period, the percentage of blacks age 25 and older who had completed high school increased by 9 percentage points from 78% to 87%. The percentage of Hispanics age 25 and older who had completed high school increased by approximately 13 percentage points from 57% to 71% in the same time period. Non-Hispanic whites increased their high school completion six percentage points, from 88% to 94% (Census.gov).  Barriers to Educational Attainment Tracking and Inequality   The rise of mass education gave the middle and lower classes greater opportunities for upward social mobility through educational attainment. But as early as the 1920s many schools began to use "tracking" systems in which higher-achieving students were placed in accelerated classes while others were shunted into vocational and other types of less challenging classes. Today tracking remains a major problem in public schools. Parents of "gifted" children seek educational challenges for their sons and daughters and do not want them to be held back by slower learners. However, tracking systems can make average students feel less valued, and there is a danger that gifted but alienated students will be labeled as nonachievers. White and Asian students are far more likely than black and Hispanic students to be tracked into high ability groups. Ability grouping is synonymous with tracking. Some social scientists argue that these differences are a result of ability differences among racial and class groups; others assert that they are a consequence of race and class bias (Wolf, 1998, Oct. 25, The Black-White Test Score Gap. New York Times Book Review, p. 15). Because there are far more Hispanic and black students in the lower socioeconomic classes, there is little question that social factors outweigh biological ones in explaining these results. In any case, tracking separates children and is increasingly viewed as leading to educational inequalities. A current trend in educational practice, therefore, is to Institute detracking programs and to provide highly gifted students with additional challenges through cooperative education in which they have opportunities to teach others and through after school programs (Betts, 1998, March. The Two-Legged Stool. Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, pp. 97-117; Mansnerus, 1992, Nov. 1, Should Tracking Be Derailed? Education Life, New York Times, pp. 14-16). Tracking most often begins in junior high school or middle school, where students do not stay in a single classroom but move from one subject to another. It persists into high school, where it is often made explicit in tracks such as the common, academic, general, and vocational-commercial curricula of many secondary school systems. Teachers and administrators often support tracking systems because they believe that students learn more effectively and develop greater self-esteem when they are grouped with academically equivalent students. These claims may be legitimate, but most of the available research indicates that students are intensely aware of tracking when it exists and that it does not contribute to the academic confidence of those in lower tracks. Research on the lasting effects of tracking gives strong support to the critical "reproduction" theories of schooling. Students in lower tracks tend to end up in lower paid and lower prestige occupations once they finish their schooling. In a study (Broussard & Joseph, 1998. Tracking. Social Work in Education, 20, 110-120), which compared student experience with tracking with careers later in life, the researchers found that almost 41% of those in the academic track were in professional, technical, or managerial careers later in life, as opposed to less than 20% of those in vocational commercial tracks. Tracking does not automatically translate into reproduction of the class system, but these data indicate that it can contribute to maintaining the status quo of class inequality. Dropping Out From 2000 to 2016, the Hispanic status dropout rate decreased from 27.8 to 8.6%, while the black rate decreased from 13.1 to 6.2%, and the white rate decreased from 6.9 to 5.2%. Nevertheless, the Hispanic status dropout rate in 2016 remained higher than the black and white rates. There was no measurable difference between the black and white status Dropout rates in 2016 (Feb. 2019. Indicator 17: High School Status Dropout Rates. National Center for Education Statistics).  The main reason for dropping out of school is poor academic performance, but there are other reasons as well. Students often drop out because of the demands of work and family roles; many are married, or unmarried and pregnant, and are working at regular jobs. Whatever the reason, the effects of dropping out can be serious. Dropouts have less chance of joining the labor force than high school graduates; whatever jobs they find tend to be low-paying ones (Kornblum, 2003, Sociology in a Changing World, 6th ed., pp. 564-565). Degree Inflation The trend toward increasingly higher levels of educational attainment has had an unexpected effect known as "degree inflation" (Pederson, 1997, March 3. When an A Is Average. Newsweek, p. 64). Employers have always paid attention to the educational credentials of potential employees, but today they require much more education than in the past. For example, in the early decades of the twentieth century a person could get a teaching job with just a high-school diploma; now a bachelor's or master's degree is usually required. The same is true of social work. And secretaries, who formerly could get by without a high-school diploma, now are often required to have at least some college education or, in some cases, a college degree. Degree inflation is discouraging to some students and prevents them from continuing their education. It also adds to the expense of education both directly and indirectly in terms of lost income and hence prevents less advantaged students from undertaking advanced studies. Degree inflation also increases the amount of time that must be devoted to formal education. And therefore raises questions about the meaning of educational achievement; that is, the value of the time spent attaining educational credentials. *MAIN SOURCE: KORNBLUM, W., 2003, SOCIOLOGY IN A CHANGING WORLD, 6TH ED., PP. 562-565* end