Inequality In Educational Attainment Research Articles

Educational Expansion and Social Mobility: The Scottish Case

For over a century, the goal of reducing class inequalities in educational attainment has been based at least in part on the belief that this would help to equalise life chances. Drawing upon the main findings of three ESRC-funded projects, this paper reviews the empirical evidence on trends in social class inequalities in educational attainment and the role of education in promoting social mobility in Scotland. The findings show that in the second half of the twentieth century, despite the increase in overall levels of attainment, class differences in educational attainment persisted. Educational policies in Scotland supported educational expansion which allowed larger numbers of working-class children to climb the social class ladder than in the past. However, these did not translate into any break with the patterns of social inequalities in the chances of entering the top-level occupations. The conclusions highlight that educational policies on their own are not powerful enough to change patterns of social mobility which are mainly driven by labour market and social class structures.

Educational Expansion and Social Mobility in the 20th Century

Sociologists consider inequality in educational attainment to be a major cause of inequality between people in their chances of occupying a more advantageous class position. However, there is dispute as to whether educational inequality according to social class background declined during the 20th century. What is not in doubt is the expansion of education in the advanced economies during this time, and several authors have pointed to educational expansion as a mechanism by which inequalities in social mobility chances may be reduced. I measure this effect and compare it with the impact of educational equalization on social mobility in Britain, Sweden and Germany during the 20th century. I find that in all three countries educational expansion promoted greater social mobility.

Differentiation and work: inequality in degree attainment in U.S. higher education

While much stratification research has focused on understanding the patterns and consequences of differentiation, previous studies have not considered similarly important variation in students’ trajectories through higher education, and particularly their participation in the labor market. Results from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth of 1997 (NLSY97) indicate that degree completion in a differentiated system of higher education is related to students’ employment patterns. Students who begin their educational journeys in community colleges as well as students from less advantaged family backgrounds are more likely to dedicate longer hours to paid employment, which has negative consequences for degree attainment. Employment patterns contribute to gaps in degree completion among students from different family backgrounds and to a lesser extent to inequality in degree completion between students beginning postsecondary education in community colleges vs. 4-year institutions. A more complex set of patterns is revealed when examining the relationship between employment, family background, and degree attainment across different institutional types and educational credentials. These findings highlight the importance of developing a more comprehensive understanding of inequality in educational attainment by considering the relationship between differentiation and work.

The impact of intermarriage on ethnic stratification: Jews in Israel

We investigate macro-level implications of ethnic/racial intermarriage in one generation on ethnic/racial inequality in the subsequent generation. In our theoretical model, ethnic intermarriage affects ethnic stratification through intergenerational transmissions of socioeconomic status and ethnicity. The effects of ethnic intermarriage depend on the association between ethnic intermarriage and socioeconomic status in the parents’ generation, as well as the association between ethnic (self-)identification and socioeconomic status in the offspring generation. The model suggests that under plausible scenarios, intermarriage may increase socioeconomic gaps across ethnic groups. Thus, the model's predictions temper those of assimilation and melting pot theories, which suggest that ethnic intermarriage unequivocally reduces ethnic inequality. We then consider a case study of ethnic inequality in educational attainment among Jews in Israel. Using record-linkage data on young, native-born Jewish adults from two Israeli Censuses, we are able to (1) quantify the effects of ethnic intermarriage on ethnic inequality in the offspring generation, via the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status; (2) consider the implications of various forms of ethnic (self-)identification among the offspring of intermarried couples; and (3) examine a period marking the onset of significant numbers of adult offspring of ethnic intermarriage. We investigate educational gaps that might have arisen in counterfactual scenarios in which ethnic intermarriage in the parents’ generation had not occurred. Consistent with the theoretical model, we find that, under plausible assumptions about the ethnic (self-)identification of offspring of intermarried couples, ethnic intermarriage in the parents’ generation substantially increases ethnic inequality among young adults in the offspring generation. In particular, if the offspring of ethnically intermarried couples (self-)identify as a function of their socioeconomic status, or, alternatively, as a distinct ethnic group, then ethnic intermarriage is likely to result in greater inequality in the offspring generation than in counterfactual scenarios in which ethnic intermarriage had not occurred. We thus demonstrate that ethnic intermarriage affects ethnic inequality in ways that are significantly more complex than those suggested by assimilation theories, We conclude that ethnic intermarriage should not necessarily be viewed as a vehicle for reducing group differences over time or for reducing the salience of ethnicity among disadvantaged ethnic groups.

Institutional Racism and Ethnic Inequalities: An Expanded Multilevel Framework

AbstractThe concept of institutional racism re-emerged in political discourse in the late 1990s after a long hiatus. Despite it initially seeming pivotal to New Labour's reform of policing and the antecedent of a new race equality agenda, it has remained a contested concept that has been critiqued by multiple constituencies. This paper notes the ambiguities and contradictions of the concept and considers its validity as an explanatory concept for long-observed ethnic inequalities in educational attainment and stop and search. In so doing, it argues for its retention, but only within a multilevel framework that incorporates racialisations operating at the micro, meso and macro levels.

The relationship between income inequality and inequality in schooling

Children of affluent parents get more schooling than children of poor parents, which seems to imply that reducing income inequality would reduce inequality in schooling. Similarly, one of the best predictors of an individual’s income is his educational attainment, which seems to imply that reducing inequality in schooling will reduce income inequality. Economic theory predicts that all else being equal an increase in income inequality will lead to an increase in inequality of educational attainment. Empirical estimates suggest that when income inequality increased in the United States so did inequality in educational attainment. But changes in government education policies reduced the impact of the increase in income inequality on inequality in schooling. Economic theory also predicts that all else being equal an increase in inequality of educational attainment will result in greater inequality of earnings. But unequal schooling does not account for much of the variance in income, so equalizing schooling will do little to reduce the overall variation in economic success among adults.

Do all roads lead to Rome? Effect of educational trajectories on educational transitions

“Non-traditional” educational trajectories are increasingly common among American students. This study assesses the implications of this phenomenon for inequality in educational attainment. A proper account of educational trajectories requires simultaneous consideration of qualitatively different types of destinations within educational transitions, of the timing at which different transitions occur, and of the sequence of events within educational levels. To examine “traditional” and “non-traditional” pathways through post-secondary education, this study relies on detailed educational histories from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979–2002. Findings reveal that deviations from a traditional trajectory are widespread, are more frequent among students who enrolled in less selective colleges, and also among socioeconomically and academically disadvantaged students. Results show that following a “non-traditional” pathway reduces students’ chances to enroll in college and to complete a post-secondary degree. In the case of bachelor's degree completion, most of the observed gap among students from different socioeconomic backgrounds is accounted for the different trajectories students follow. This study demonstrates that a fine-grained analysis of students’ trajectories improves our understanding of the persistent socioeconomic disparities in educational attainment.

Selections and social selectivity on the academic track: A life-course analysis of educational attainment in Germany

Graduating from university is just the final step of an extended educational career. Sociological transition research has revealed that final educational attainment must be understood as the result of a sequence of successive decisions. With regard to graduation from university, one has to take into account that upper secondary school qualifications are required for enrolling in the first place, and in Germany, the decision for this kind of schooling is at a much earlier age. So where on the long way to the university degree does Germany ‘lose’ its potential academics and in particular its lower class children? This paper presents a detailed picture of the life-course development of educational careers by analyzing the various steps of the collective educational history of a particular birth cohort. The paper takes account of both the country-specific institutional structures of the educational system and inter-individual variation in educational trajectories and combines both aspects in an analysis of the most relevant types of educational transitions associated with the ‘academic track’. Altogether, the transitions aggregate to the final number of graduates as well as to the observed level of inequality in educational attainment. In our empirical analyses, we are interested in both the overall selection at particular transitions and social differences in these transition patterns. We use survey data on participation and social selectivity in education. The paper confirms the usefulness of transition research for understanding the process of educational attainment; an analysis based on transitions is clearly superior to an analysis which focuses purely on stock figures of educational attainment. However, the paper also shows that conventional forms of transition research are often too simple as they assume an ideal-typical sequence of transitions during education. Educational careers in reality often deviate from this model. The number of young people (and in particular lower class children) who try to join the ‘academic track’ at least once during their educational career is much higher than the number of those who graduate successfully in the end. Accounting for the most relevant events helps to understand the quantitative and qualitative selectivity of the German educational system and may serve as a model for research on other aspects of educational inequality as well as on other educational systems.

Gender Inequality in Educational Attainment in South Korea, 1950s-1990s

Seong, Moon-Ju.December, 2009.Gender inequality in educational attainment in South Korea, 1950s-1990s,Article,SeoulKorea Women's Development Institute,28

EDUCATION AND INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE REGIONS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION*

ABSTRACTThis paper provides an empirical study of the determinants of income inequality across regions of the EU. Using the European Community Household Panel dataset for 102 regions over the period 1995–2000, it analyses how microeconomic changes in human capital distribution affect income inequality for the population as a whole and for normally working people. The different static and dynamic panel data analyses conducted reveal that the relationship between income per capita and income inequality, as well as between a good human capital endowment and income inequality is positive. High levels of inequality in educational attainment are also associated with higher income inequality. The above results are robust to changes in the definition of income distribution and may be interpreted as a sign of the responsiveness of the EU labor market to differences in qualifications and skills. Other results indicate that population ageing, female participation in the labor force, urbanization, agriculture, and industry are negatively associated to income inequality, while unemployment and the presence of a strong financial sector positively affect inequality. Finally, income inequality is lower in social‐democratic welfare states, in Protestant areas, and in regions with Nordic family structures.

The impact of governance on education inequality: Evidence from Bangladesh

AbstractBangladesh has made remarkable progress in increasing education access in the last 20 years. However, substantial inequalities in educational attainment remain even though equity in education is a central government objective. The article argues that weaknesses in education sector governance are crucial to understanding these persistent inequalities. At the level of the budget, anti‐poor biases in allocation decisions are shown to be the result of the budget's role in political management and the lack of effective accountability mechanisms. The spearhead of government attempts to address education inequality at the primary level has been the conditional cash transfer programme for poor children. The article shows that the programme has failed to target the poor and suggests that this has been due to the weaknesses and contradictions in the governance of the programme. Strengthening the links between policy and implementation through improvements in the governance of the sector are crucial if inequality is to be addressed and national education goals achieved. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Educational Expansion and Its Consequences for Vertical and Horizontal Inequalities in Access to Higher Education in West Germany

For scholars of social stratification one of the key questions regarding educational expansion is whether it diminishes or magnifies existing inequalities in educational attainment. The effect of expansion on educational inequality in tertiary education is of particular importance, as tertiary education has become increasingly relevant for labour market prospects and life course opportunities. Our article studies the access to tertiary education of students with different social origins in light of educational expansion in Germany. First, we examine inequalities in access to four vertical alternatives of postsecondary education by means of multinomial regression with national data from four school-leaver surveys from 1983, 1990, 1994, and 1999. Second, for those students who enrol at a tertiary institution, effects of social origin on horizontal choices of fields of study are analysed. Results show that unequal opportunities to access postsecondary and tertiary institutions remain constant at a high level. Likewise, social background effects have not changed over time for the choice of field of study. Thus, students from different social backgrounds did not change their educational strategies irrespective of the ongoing expansion of secondary and tertiary education.

Competition for Resources: A Reexamination of Sibship Composition Models of Parental Investment

The predictions of resource dilution and sibship gender composition models of educational investment are tested using the Japanese Nationwide Survey on Families (N = 6,985). Japan is an important case because of its postindustrial economy, coupled with high levels of dependence on parental investment to attend a university and persisting gender inequality in educational attainment. In previous between‐family analyses of educational attainment in Japan, boys were found to drain resources from their sisters. The within‐family, multilevel models of parental educational investments in this analysis show that girls with college‐educated brothers fare better than their peers without brothers. An alternative model incorporating the educational investments received by brothers in the same family is proposed.

Nonpersistent Inequality in Educational Attainment: Evidence from Eight European Countries

In their widely cited study, Shavit and Blossfeld report stability of socioeconomic inequalities in educational attainment over much of the 20th century in 11 out of 13 countries. This article outlines reasons why one might expect to find declining class inequalities in educational attainment, and, using a large data set, the authors analyze educational inequality among cohorts born in the first two-thirds of the 20th century in eight European countries. They find, as expected, a widespread decline in educational inequality between students coming from different social origins. Their results are robust to other possible choices of method and variables, and the authors offer some explanations of why their findings contradict Shavit and Blossfeld's conclusions.

Long-term Trends in Educational Inequality in Europe: Class Inequalities and Gender Differences

Using data for seven European countries we analyse trends among women in class differences in educational attainment over the first two-thirds of the 20th century. We also compare educational attainment between men and women; we ask whether class differences among the two sexes are similar or not; and whether trends in class differences over birth cohorts have differed between men and women. We find that, as expected, over the 20th century, inequalities between men and women in their educational attainment declined markedly. More importantly, changes in class inequalities in educational attainment have been similar for both men and women, although, in some countries, women displayed greater inequality at the start of the 20th century and have shown a somewhat greater rate of increase in equality. Patterns of class inequality were also largely similar for both sexes, though in some countries daughters of farmers and the petty-bourgeoisie did relatively better than their brothers. While some of these results reinforce what has long been believed, our central finding of a decline in class inequality in educational attainment for both men and women contradicts the ‘persistent inequality’ in education that earlier scholars claimed existed.

Measuring educational inequality: implications for managers and development planners

This study shows that it is possible to measure the inequality of education attainment by using a method similar to that for measuring the inequality of income distribution, that is by the use of Gini ratios. For the states included in the sample, the biggest differences were in the proportion that had not completed high school. In all cases, these differences were shown to be significant. Further research will be needed to determine the usefulness of this alternative measure in the modelling of an economic process. Research should also be done to determine the reasons for the differences in the inequality of educational attainment.

The Erosion of Affirmative Action and its Consequences for the Black-White Educational Attainment Gap

The disparity in economic outcomes between whites and blacks in the United States has long been an important social and political issue. While there are many factors contributing to this economic gulf, a crucial element is undoubtedly the large and pervasive gap that exists in the level of educational attainment between whites and blacks. It is wellknown that higher levels of educational attainment are correlated with greater earnings, lower unemployment, and greater levels of labor force attachment. Therefore, addressing the issue of inequality in educational attainment, particularly that of higher education, may provide substantial long-term benefits toward ultimately creating economic and social equality. Over the past several decades many colleges and universities have employed affirmative action in their admissions programs in order to foster more campus diversity and to provide greater educational opportunities for underrepresented minorities. The mid-1990s, however, saw the beginnings of a significant affirmative action backlash that has culminated in the removal of affirmative action in several states. The use of affirmative action in university admissions has now endured more than a decade of legal, political, and social challenges and will likely remain a topic of significant debate in the near future. The outcome of this debate will likely have important implications for the future educational opportunities of underrepresented minorities, and may ultimately play a significant long-term role in the possible bridging of the black-white gap in economic outcomes.

Mapping gender and social background differences in education and youth transitions across Europe

This paper uses data drawn from the European Union Labour Force Survey 2000 Ad Hoc Module on School to Work Transitions to explore the influence of gender and social background (measured in terms of parental education) on young people's educational and early labour market outcomes across 12 European countries. Our results show that social background is strongly related to the level of education achieved while gender is found to have a stronger effect on the field of study selected. Countries vary in the extent to which gender and social background affect young people's outcomes. Gender differentiation in labour market outcomes reflects the nature of the welfare regime, being more pronounced in familial and conservative systems. Social inequality in educational attainment and early labour market outcomes are less marked in Finland and Sweden, reflecting the combination of less differentiated educational systems, mass higher education and social–democratic welfare regimes. In contrast, social inequality is more marked in the Eastern European countries, due partly to their highly differentiated educational systems but more notably to rapid changes taking place in post-communist systems.

Persistent Inequality in Educational Attainment and its Institutional Context

Research has repeatedly shown that educational opportunities are distributed unevenly in all countries. Therefore, the question is not whether family background and educational outcomes are related but to what degree they are related. This latter question then invites a comparative perspective. That is, does social inequality in education differ across time and countries? If yes, which institutional characteristics can explain differences in educational inequality? Educational inequality is conceptualized as the association between individuals’ and their parents’ highest educational level attained. Intergenerational educational mobility processes are analysed for 20 industrialized nations by means of log-linear and log-multiplicative models. The results show that the degree of educational mobility has remained stable across the second half of the 20th century in virtually all countries. However, nations differ widely in the extent to which parents’ education influences their children's educational attainment. The degree of educational inequality is associated with the institutional structure of national education systems. Rigid systems with dead-end educational pathways appear to be a hindrance to the equalization of educational opportunities, especially if the sorting of students occurs early in the educational career. This association is not mediated by other institutional characteristics included in this analysis that do not exert notable influences on educational mobility.

Interrogating gendered inequality in educational attainment in India

The educational system in India is highly stratified across gender, caste, class, region and religion. However, gender remains the most pervasive axis of educational stratification and disparities in India despite recognition of large societal benefits accruing to women and several proactive constitutional/legal measures over last six decades. Most of the literature on gender inequality in education deals with literacy and access to elementary education and are descriptive/narrative in nature. Moreover, girls and women are often treated as a monolithic category overlooking their multiple locations teasing a simplistic framework to unravel gender inequality in education at various levels and underlying factors causing such inequalities. Drawing both from secondary data and field-based research in differently located sites in terms of developmental parameters in rural Bihar, this paper tries to capture gender disparity in a multi-dimensional and nuanced analytical framework locating it in a larger socio-economic context.