Within school stratification

Abstract

The term “within-school stratification” emanates from a long lineage of research into the ways in which schools and school systems differentiate educational opportunities of students over the course of a child's school life. Since the focus on within-school stratification has been recognized as a significant factor in the unequal distribution of educational opportunity and outcomes, there has been a very substantial production of research generated in the attempt to understand and potentially alter the now well documented inequities of conventional school structures and processes. This chapter places the development of that research in its historical post-WWII context, over the full course of children's school life.