Dennis J. Condron

Egalitarianism and Educational Excellence Compatible Goals for Affluent Societies

Explanations for U.S. students’ performance on international comparisons of educational achievement abound, with much of the scholarly and public discussion centering on cross-national differences in education systems. The author argues that the connection between economic inequality and educational achievement in affluent societies deserves far more attention than it receives. Analyses of data from the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment and other sources indicate that egalitarian countries have higher average achievement, higher percentages of very highly skilled students, and lower percentages of very low-skilled students than do less egalitarian countries. These patterns suggest that egalitarianism and educational excellence are compatible goals for affluent societies. The author discusses the implications of these findings for educational and economic policy in the United States.

Fifty Years since the Coleman Report Rethinking the Relationship between Schools and Inequality

In the half century since the 1966 Coleman Report, scholars have yet to develop a consensus regarding the relationship between schools and inequality. The Coleman Report suggested that schools play little role in generating achievement gaps, but social scientists have identified many ways in which schools provide better learning environments to advantaged children compared to disadvantaged children. As a result, a critical perspective that views schools as engines of inequality dominates contemporary sociology of education. However, an important body of empirical research challenges this critical view. To reconcile the field’s main ideas with this new evidence, we propose a refraction framework, a perspective on schools and inequality guided by the assumption that schools may shape inequalities along different dimensions in different ways. From this more balanced perspective, schools might indeed reproduce or exacerbate some inequalities, but they also might compensate for others—socioeconomic disparities in cognitive skills in particular. We conclude by discussing how the mostly critical perspective on schools and inequality is costly to the field of sociology of education.

Number of Siblings and Social Skills Revisited Among American Fifth Graders

Most research on the consequences of the number of siblings highlights their downside—the negative association between sibship size and educational outcomes. But recently scholars have begun to understand the potential benefits of siblings, with some research indicating that kindergartners are more socially adept when they have at least one brother or sister. We expand this line of inquiry by studying fifth graders, a point where sufficient school-based peer interactions have occurred to potentially eliminate the social skills deficit observed among only children beginning kindergarten. Analyzing 11,820 children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Cohort of 1998-99, we find that, contrary to our expectations, only children failed to gain more social skills between kindergarten and fifth grade than their counterparts with siblings. This pattern has important implications for the one in five children now raised without siblings.

A Collective Effort to Improve Sociology Students’ Writing Skills

Nationwide, academic sociologists at all types of higher education institutions face the challenge of working to improve students’ writing skills. In this article, we describe a collective effort by a group of faculty members in one undergraduate sociology program to implement several effective writing-improvement strategies. We advocate aiming to improve students’ writing by working together on a united front rather than working in isolation. After explaining the origins of the collective emphasis on writing that emerged in our group and briefly outlining the writing-improvement strategies that we utilize, we use student survey data to reflect on major themes before concluding with a discussion of the merits of our collective approach.

Two Questions for Sociologists of Education A Rejoinder

Gamoran, Carter, and Schneider agree with our general point, that schools do more to reduce than increase SES-based achievement gaps, but all three suggest that schools serving children from disadvantaged backgrounds still need improvement. We do not intend to dismiss or undermine efforts to improve schools serving disadvantaged children; rather, we argue that the sociology of education has paid inadequate attention to how the broader social context generates cognitive disparities. To understand why we emphasize reforming the broader social context as a way to reduce achievement gaps while acknowledging that school reform has value, consider an analogy. Marathon Runner A finishes an hour behind Runner B solely because Runner A started the race an hour late. Of course, in preparation for the next race, it would be possible for Runner A to close the gap by training harder to run at a faster pace, but the most straightforward way to reduce the gap would be to start the race at the same time. Similarly, additional school reforms could reduce SES-based achievement gaps, but we recommend working toward more equal skills at the starting line. We say this because large SES-based gaps in cognitive skills emerge before kindergarten even begins, and these gaps do not grow appreciably as children progress through school. Rather than commit to a renewed focus on poor children’s experiences in schools, as Schneider calls for, we encourage a new focus on understanding how the broader social context generates poor students’ disadvantage at kindergarten entry. Of course, schools may play a more pernicious role when it comes to black/white gaps in cognitive skills, as Gamoran and Schneider remind us. But even this case warrants a greater emphasis on the broader context because black/white gaps are significantly developed by kindergarten entry.