Soc 346 Study Guide (exam 1)
In Class:
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Educational Expansion
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Changes in rates of high school and college completion
1950-34% of 25 year olds had completed high school
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6% completed college
2001-84% completed high school
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26% college
Asking a lot more of educational system but with less resources
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Social Mobility and Status Attainment
o
Social Reproduction v Social Mobility
Social Reproduction
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People likely to end up in positions similar to that of their parents
Social Mobility
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People end up in higher or lower position
o
Schools and status cultures
Max Weber
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Status group-makes up social order, social honor, lifestyle
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Social class-economic order
o
Often these two overlap
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Schools maintain “status cultures”
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Education system justifies existing status groups that already exist
o
Social Reproduction
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0>E>D path diagram
Father’s occupational status and level of education(origins-O)
Person’s own educational attainment level (education-E)
One’s own occupational destinations(dest-D)
o
Mobility (Ralph Turner 1960’s)
Ideal Types
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Contest mobility(U.S.)
o
Contest for elite systems
o
Relatively “open” to all
o
Those who earn elite status get it
o
Multiple elites (opens up to competition)
o
No early or premature judgments of status

o
Always the hope “chance” because of delayed decision
making
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Sponsored mobility(Britain)
o
Established elite group
o
Established elite choose future elites and “sponsor” them
o
Early determination of “talent”
o
Early selection and sorting
o
Training is geared towards one’s adult status
o
Diff kids get diff education
o
Train the masses to see elites as having superior
competence
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Consequences
o
US.
Discouragement (failure)
Unrealistic expectations
o
Britain
Unrecognized talent
Possibility of revolt
Higher dropout rates
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Human, Social, and Cultural Capital theories
o
Social closure and the relationship between human and social capital
o
What educational phenomena they help explain/examples of research showing the
benefits of each.
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Credentialism
o
What credentials “signal” to employers
They have the necessary knowledge and socialization to be good workers
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School funding and school segregation
o
How much variation within/between states?
Large differences in funding between schools in poor and wealthy
communities
•
Districts range of funding is often more important to pay attention
to than the differences between states
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Almost half the districts spend less than $6000 per student per year
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The amount per pupil is highly dependent upon the wealth of the
community the school is in
o
Relationships between student poverty and school funding
The higher the level of poverty, the less money per student
Kids in poverty face a lot of obstacles
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Poorly funded schools is one of them
o


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- Fall '08
- MILLAR
- Sociology, social reproduction, Social Mobility Social, resources Social Mobility