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Sociopolitical Changes and Inequality in Educational Opportunities in China: Two Different Trends, 1940–2001

Li Chunling

in Growing Gaps: Educational Inequality around the World

This chapter examines the relationship between social class and university entrance in the People's Republic of China during a period of major economic change towards the end of the last century. The ... More

This chapter examines the relationship between social class and university entrance in the People's Republic of China during a period of major economic change towards the end of the last century. The trends of development toward greater equality in educational opportunities were severed into two stages of development that moved in diametrically opposite directions. The first stage extended from the 1950s to the 1970s, and it was characterized by the phenomenal growth of educational opportunities, as well as the movement toward a more equitable distribution of educational opportunities. The second stage extended from the 1980s to the 1990s, and it witnessed both the expansion of educational opportunities and the growth of educational inequality. The turning point of these stages of development came with changes in social, political, and economic conditions, as well as with changes in government policies. The fluctuating influence of family origin on educational attainment demonstrates the strong impact of changes in state policy and ideology on the mechanism of distribution of educational opportunities in China.Less

Introduction

Mohd. Sanjeer Alam

in Religion, Community, and Education: The Case of Rural Bihar

Even though India has made remarkable progress during past six decades in widening the literacy base and expanding educational opportunities, the Indian education system has been marked by glaring ... More

Even though India has made remarkable progress during past six decades in widening the literacy base and expanding educational opportunities, the Indian education system has been marked by glaring disparities along various axes of social and regional stratification. Religion is one of the most pervasive axes of educational disparity in India. At the same time, it remains one of the least explored dimensions of educational disparity. The complexities underlying the relative educational backwardness of certain religious communities, especially the Muslims, remain under-explored. The discussion in this chapter analyses the issues underlying these research deficits and exposes the problems of the existing body of research.Less

Is Failure Inevitable? The Recent Fate of Secondary School Reforms Intended to Alleviate Social Disadvantage

John Gray

in Understanding Social Change

This chapter discusses school reforms that have been taking place, with the aim to produce greater equality of educational opportunity. The chapter suggests why they may have been less effective than ... More

This chapter discusses school reforms that have been taking place, with the aim to produce greater equality of educational opportunity. The chapter suggests why they may have been less effective than hoped. It focuses on three areas: the effects of comprehensive reorganisation; the extent of variations in school effectiveness; and the contribution of systemic programmes on educational disadvantage.Less

A Multiracial World

Lily Geismer

in Don't Blame Us: Suburban Liberals and the Transformation of the Democratic Party

This chapter examines the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) and its commitment to equal opportunity and changing individual attitudes through one-on-one interaction. While ... More

This chapter examines the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) and its commitment to equal opportunity and changing individual attitudes through one-on-one interaction. While METCO offered a rare example of interracial and urban–suburban cooperation, its focus on collective benefits rather than collective responsibility had wide-ranging consequences. Tracing the development of METCO offers an important case study of the trade-offs that suburban liberal activists made in their quests to achieve social justice. The organizers' pragmatic approach ensured the acceptance of the program in the suburbs and paved the way for later support of diversity claims about the value of affirmative action. This strategy, nevertheless, fortified the consumer-based and individualist dimensions of the Route 128 political culture. It ultimately made community members more resistant to grappling with the systemic and historical circumstances that necessitated programs like METCO and affirmative action in the first place.Less

Overeducation and Social Generations in France: Welfare Regimes and Inter-cohort Inequalities in Returns to Education

Louis Chauvel

in Growing Gaps: Educational Inequality around the World

This chapter presents a comparative theory and an empirical analysis of inequalities in economic opportunities and returns to education across birth cohorts. It focuses on the consequences of ... More

This chapter presents a comparative theory and an empirical analysis of inequalities in economic opportunities and returns to education across birth cohorts. It focuses on the consequences of economic slowdowns in different types of welfare regimes and analyzes how discontinuities in economic trends produce diverse effects on the balance between birth cohorts. It shows that conservative (France) and the familialistic (Italy) welfare regimes are marked by strong inter-cohort inequalities at the expense of younger social generations. In contrast, social-democratic (Denmark) and liberal (US) systems show less inter-cohort redistribution of resources. As far as education goes, while there is no clear decline in the return to education in the latter countries, the former nations show strong drops in the value of intermediate levels of education. This means that national trajectories of social change have diverged, and we should anticipate the long-term consequences of these divergences.Less

Schooling and the Distribution of Earnings: The Development of Empirical Research

Tsuneo Ishikawa

in Income and Wealth

This chapter focuses on the relationship between schooling and distribution of income, first providing a survey of the fruits of past empirical research, and then discussing the efficacy and ... More

This chapter focuses on the relationship between schooling and distribution of income, first providing a survey of the fruits of past empirical research, and then discussing the efficacy and limitation of the theoretical framework given in the previous chapter. Section 4.1 deals with internal rate of return to educational investment, now a classical concept concerning schooling and earnings, and Sect. 4.2 closely studies Mincer's conclusion that education and other human investments are the major cause of differences in labour earnings. Section 4.3 offers a more generalized framework for the cause of differences in labour earnings, in which education is treated as one of a number of factors producing the inequality in earnings; it presents a survey of the trials conducted to measure statistically the contribution of different factors to income (the estimation of earnings function), presents a model, and also studies the role of education as intermediary––as revealing individuals’ innate abilities, and as reflecting family and socio‐economic background that might limit access to good educational opportunities. Educational investment, therefore, is evaluated in Sect. 4.3, not only from the viewpoint of productivity enhancement but also from the viewpoint of the signalling effect of information. Finally, Sect. 4.4 re‐examines the relationship between educational attainment and earnings by addressing the more fundamental question of the way that education enhances productivity.Less

Tightening the Belt

Lily Geismer

in Don't Blame Us: Suburban Liberals and the Transformation of the Democratic Party

This chapter places the debates over voluntary integration within the context of the Boston busing crisis and the national recession. Explorations of the dramatic events that surrounded the Boston ... More

This chapter places the debates over voluntary integration within the context of the Boston busing crisis and the national recession. Explorations of the dramatic events that surrounded the Boston busing crisis have often focused on the ways in which “suburban liberals” passively stood by as working-class whites and blacks in the city endured the burden of school integration. However, the residents along Boston's Route 128 belt were not as removed from the events and issues as those depictions might suggest. The discussion about METCO during this period of turmoil illuminates how the various forces of suburban politics influenced the remedies to school desegregation and racial and economic inequality.Less

Unfolding the Context: Structures and Processes

Mohd. Sanjeer Alam

in Religion, Community, and Education: The Case of Rural Bihar

In every society, structural resources are likely to be unequally distributed across social groups. Inequality in distribution of structural resources is particularly glaring in societies defined by ... More

In every society, structural resources are likely to be unequally distributed across social groups. Inequality in distribution of structural resources is particularly glaring in societies defined by rigid rules of social stratification. Since education is seen as a sub-system of a larger social system, who gets how much and what kind of education depends, to a large extent, on access of individuals or groups to the structural resources. In other words, the issues of equity and access in education cannot be understood without understanding the context in which the educational system functions. This chapter, therefore, unfolds the context in which this study is situated. It brings into sharp focus historically embedded, wider structures and processes that are supposed to have important bearings on access to educational opportunities and disparities therein in the state of Bihar and the districts under study.Less

Curricular Reform, Academic Achievement, and Educational Opportunity

Christopher Bjork

in High-Stakes Schooling: What We Can Learn from Japan's Experiences with Testing, Accountability, and Education Reform

Chapter seven present data to analyzes the impact of that pattern on student learning. It concludes that changes to the curriculum introduced with the goal of making learning more appealing to all ... More

Chapter seven present data to analyzes the impact of that pattern on student learning. It concludes that changes to the curriculum introduced with the goal of making learning more appealing to all students actually had the opposite effect in the middle schools: achievement-oriented pupils capitalized on the opportunities offered to them while their less motivated peers fell further behind. The chapter considers the effect that neoliberal reforms have had on molding Japan as a “gap society,” and the effect that such opportunity disparities between the rich and the poor have had on schools.Less

Redefining State Responsibility in Education

in School, Society, & State: A New Education to Govern Modern America, 1890 – 1940

During the National Education Association's Department of Superintendence meeting in 1918 to discuss “centralizing tendencies in educational administration,” Payson Smith, state superintendent of ... More

During the National Education Association's Department of Superintendence meeting in 1918 to discuss “centralizing tendencies in educational administration,” Payson Smith, state superintendent of Massachusetts, called for a stronger state government role to safeguard equal opportunity by addressing inequities wrought by social, economic, and demographic changes. Many of those who attended the meeting agreed with his call for expanded state responsibility, but others were not as enthusiastic. This chapter focuses on the expansion of the state government role in education and explores public debates over state and federal aid, the growth of state administration, and the complex ways that states negotiated with and utilized local control. It first looks at state government promotion of local schooling before World War I before turning to equal educational opportunity and the nation-state interest in schooling during the war. The chapter also considers postwar state school administration and argues that the state role in schooling from 1890 to 1940 was one of expansive legal authority and steadily growing involvement by state boards of education, state superintendents and departments of education, state legislatures, and state courts.Less

Epilogue

Lily Geismer

in Don't Blame Us: Suburban Liberals and the Transformation of the Democratic Party

This concluding chapter examines the recent trends in Massachusetts' effort to confront its image as out of touch with the rest of the country, turning to the themes of equality of opportunity and ... More

This concluding chapter examines the recent trends in Massachusetts' effort to confront its image as out of touch with the rest of the country, turning to the themes of equality of opportunity and meritocratic individualism and how these had come to define liberalism. It shows that, in recent years, the Route 128 area had experienced a series of demographic changes which has since helped to lessen the pronounced whiteness in the Route 128 suburbs—but not the patterns of economic exclusivity. The chapter notes the improvements to the quality of life for Route 128's residents of color, noting however that such trends have yet to provide the solution to metropolitan, class, and racial inequities.Less

Growth Industry

Chester E. Finn and Andrew E. Scanlan

in Learning in the Fast Lane: The Past, Present, and Future of Advanced Placement

This chapter looks at more recent developments and the present state of Advanced Placement (AP). Advanced Placement's recent decades are notable for the program's stunning growth on multiple ... More

This chapter looks at more recent developments and the present state of Advanced Placement (AP). Advanced Placement's recent decades are notable for the program's stunning growth on multiple dimensions. Many more schools, students, and subjects joined in, and they did so at accelerating rates. At least five factors have fueled the AP program's expansion in recent years. First, the use of AP participation to rate and rank high schools has impelled more of them to increase their student numbers so as to boost their standings. Second, schools and districts were induced to add more AP courses because they wanted to challenge their students intellectually, tone up their curricula, hold on to their best teachers, attract and retain more middle-class families, draw more sophisticated employers to the area, and respond to demands from parents of gifted kids. Third, the country's mounting concern about equalizing opportunity for poor and minority youngsters and getting more of them into and through college inevitably drew greater attention to AP's potential contribution. Fourth, stiffening competition to enter top colleges and more scrambling by kids to advantage themselves in the admissions process also continued to pump air into the AP balloon. The fifth factor is the forceful marketing and lobbying activities of the College Board itself. As AP has expanded, it has done so unevenly, however, giving rise to multiple issues of fairness. The chapter then considers these inequalities.Less

Navigating an Evolving Identity

Jennifer M. Morton

in Moving Up without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility

This chapter focuses on the idea of codeswitching in order to avoid incurring ethical costs and retain a sense of one's identity. It talks about how changing a person behaves as it moves between the ... More

This chapter focuses on the idea of codeswitching in order to avoid incurring ethical costs and retain a sense of one's identity. It talks about how changing a person behaves as it moves between the community it is attempting to join in which the person's family and friends reside. The chapter discusses codeswitching as a strategy for strivers to navigate the ethical conflicts that arise when one is pulled in different directions by conflicting sets of social expectations. Strivers might deploy codeswitching as a way to maintain their ties to their community while adapting to the world in which educational and career opportunities reside. Playing for both sides might be thought of as a strategy to minimize the ethical costs that strivers face as they pursue upward mobility.Less

Education Policy Making in the Shadow of an Enduring Democratic Dilemma

Anne Newman

in Realizing Educational Rights: Advancing School Reform through Courts and Communities

This chapter begins to advance the book’s main argument: that we should regard the education that prepares individuals for equal citizenship as a fundamental right that is shielded from majoritarian ... More

This chapter begins to advance the book’s main argument: that we should regard the education that prepares individuals for equal citizenship as a fundamental right that is shielded from majoritarian politics far more than existing practices permit, and far more than most theory recognizes is necessary. Concern for this right is motivated by the worry that leading accounts of democracy often fail to protect the interests of marginalized students. In this and subsequent chapters, arguments about a right to education are located in a deliberative democracy. As education scholars and reformers increasingly look to deliberative ideals to improve the education policy process, it is especially important to consider how well this approach to policy-making serves less advantaged students. The chapter first calls attention to the opportunities and challenges that deliberative theory presents for advancing just education policies. It next shows how leading conceptions of deliberation fail to ensure that all students receive a high quality education due to the wide discretion they give democratic bodies to determine public provisions for education. Finally, it discusses the unique relationship between educational opportunity and political equality, which underscores the need for a right to education that is set above democratic decision-making.Less

Two for the Price of One? The Contribution to Development of the New Female Elites

Alison Wolf

in The Role of Elites in Economic Development

This chapter describes the very different role played by female elites in contemporary developing countries, as compared to the ‘early’ industrializing countries of the nineteenth and early twentieth ... More

This chapter describes the very different role played by female elites in contemporary developing countries, as compared to the ‘early’ industrializing countries of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. It shows that women are far more important in business and politics in today’s developing countries than they were in developed countries at a period when the latter had equivalent, and indeed significantly higher, levels of income per capita. It outlines the way in which this greater equality is rooted in educational opportunities; and argues that both educational provision, and women’s entry into the elites, must be understood with reference to changing values and attitudes. They are not simply economically determined. Finally, the chapter underlines the way in which these features of business and politics strengthen elite families in developing economies.Less

Why Does Inequality of Educational Opportunity Vary Across Countries?: Primary and Secondary Effects in Comparative Context

Michelle Jackson and Jan O. Jonsson

in Determined to Succeed?: Performance versus Choice in Educational Attainment

This chapter shows that cross-national differences in inequalities in educational opportunity between members of advantaged and disadvantaged social groups are fundamentally driven by cross-national ... More

This chapter shows that cross-national differences in inequalities in educational opportunity between members of advantaged and disadvantaged social groups are fundamentally driven by cross-national differences in the size of secondary effects, mainly by social differences in educational choice at given levels of school performance. Where secondary effects are large, IEO tends to be large; and where they are small, overall educational inequalities between social groups are smaller. In contrast, there is much less variation in the size of primary effects across countries.Less

Introduction

Chester E. Finn and Andrew E. Scanlan

in Learning in the Fast Lane: The Past, Present, and Future of Advanced Placement

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the Advanced Placement (AP) program. Advanced Placement is a privately operated, mostly privately financed, and almost entirely voluntary curricular ... More

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the Advanced Placement (AP) program. Advanced Placement is a privately operated, mostly privately financed, and almost entirely voluntary curricular option for high schools and their teachers and students—one that has been competently managed and adroitly led by the nonprofit, nonpartisan College Board. It has mostly avoided the politics and fads that roil contemporary American public education, even as it has gradually evolved into a significant player in the longest-running and most compelling reform impulse of all: to widen educational opportunity and foster upward mobility for disadvantaged youngsters. For several decades after its founding in the mid-twentieth century, AP was a modest venture—scarcely visible on the K–12 scene—which conferred extra advantages on a relative handful of already-fortunate kids attending a short list of exclusive private and posh suburban public high schools. Today, however, AP's profile is far higher and markedly different: A host of policies, auxiliary programs, and booster organizations have widened access to it. Not only is its scale vastly greater, its cadres are also much more diverse, both demographically and geographically, and it is being deployed strategically in many places to strengthen the secondary schooling and postsecondary prospects of poor and minority youngsters who long lacked access to high-level coursework.Less

Education systems and inequality based on social origins: the impact of school expansion and design

Gabriele Ballarino, Fabrizio Bernardi, and Nazareno Panichella

in Education Systems and Inequalities: International Comparisons

This work studies how the inequality of educational opportunities (IEO) is shaped by two institutional features of the educational system: its expansion, that is the extent to which individuals ... More

This work studies how the inequality of educational opportunities (IEO) is shaped by two institutional features of the educational system: its expansion, that is the extent to which individuals participate in it, and its design, or the way the process of schooling is organised. The empirical analysis is driven by a micro-level theoretical model, based on the “choice-within-constraints” paradigm, which includes both the level of participation in a given school system (or school level within a system) and its institutional features. Using data from ESS (2002-2010) and EU-SILC (2005) by means of a two steps multilevel model, empirical results confirm a negative association between school expansion and IEO in both upper secondary and tertiary education. Results concerning school design are less straightforward: a negative association was found between IEO and measures of tracking and vocational specificity, while results for standardisation change depending on the chosen indicator.Less

Legacy of Reform

Janet G. Hudson

in Entangled by White Supremacy: Reform in World War I-era South Carolina

In grasping the power of white supremacy, it is important to examine carefully how the whites exercised power and determine the various methods in which the manipulative potential of white supremacy ... More

In grasping the power of white supremacy, it is important to examine carefully how the whites exercised power and determine the various methods in which the manipulative potential of white supremacy was employed and manifested. The complexity and incidence of white supremacy was made evident through the legislative debate on the funding for educational reforms in 1924. In identifying the means utilized to hide the strategies and motives from rivals, it is important to account for the subtle details of the various legislative machinations. The most apparent manifestation of white supremacy remained in how the school system was segregated and how restrictions were intended for black schools. Attaining greater educational opportunity for the whites in South Carolina would thus entail asserting how the funding reforms would threaten white supremacy. This chapter identifies the important events in coming up with an appropriate system that would foster reform.Less