Maureen T. Hallinan

Sex Differences in Children's Friendships.

This paper examines sex differences in the exclusiveness of childrens dyadic friendships. First, differences in the frequencies of triad types representing exclusive and nonexclusive dyadic friendships are compared. As expected, girls are found to have a greater frequency of exclusive triads than boys while boys are found to have a higher percentage of nonexclusive triads than girls. Girls are also shown to have a higher frequency of exclusive than comparable nonexclusive triads while no such pattern exists for boys. A second analysis examines movement across triad types over time; it shows that girls tend to return to an isolated dyad while boys tend to expand their dyadic friendships to include a third person. The implications of these results for differential learning of social skills and for the experience of newcomers to a group are discussed.

Interracial Friendship Choices in Secondary Schools.

We examine processes that govern the selection of cross-race and same-race friends among high school students. Relying on social psychological theories of interpersonal attraction, we predict that individualand school-level factors that affect the bases of attraction will influence the friendship choices. We test hypotheses using data from the sophomore and senior cohorts of the High School and Beyond Survey. Its large sample, national representativeness, and detailed information permit a deeper examination of the determinants of adolescent friendship formation than has been previously possible. Students are only one-sixth as likely to choose a cross-race than a same-race peer as a friend, and controls for school and individual variables account for only a third of this differential. While personal characteristics of individual students and pairs of students have the strongest effects on friendship choices, organizational characteristics of the school, such as tracking, are also important.

Handbook of the sociology of education

Preface. Introduction M.T. Hallinan. I: Theoretical and Methodological Orientations. 1. A Social Psychological Approach to the Study of Schooling C.E. Bidwell. 2. The Organizational Context of Teaching and Learning A. Gamoran, et al. 3. Linkages Between Sociology of Race and Sociology of Education M.T. Hallinan. 4. Research and Theory on Equality and Education K. Lynch. 5. Structural Effects in Education: A History of an Idea R. Dreeben. 6. School Effects: Theoretical and Methodological Issues A.B. Sorensen, S.L. Morgan. II: Development and Expansion of Education. 7. Development and Education C. Chabbott, F.O. Ramirez. 8. The Content of the Curriculum: An Institutional Perspective E.H. McEneaney, J.W. Meyer. 9. Comparative and Historical Patterns of Education R. Collins. 10. School Expansion, School Reform, and the Limits of Growth P.B. Walters. III: The Study of Access to Schooling. 11. Equitable Classrooms in a Changing Society E.G. Cohen. 12. Connecting Home, School, and Community: New Directions for Social Research J.L. Epstein, M.G. Sanders. 13. The Variable Construction of Educational Risk J.G. Richardson. IV: The Study of School Organization. 14. School Size and the Organization of Secondary Schools V.E. Lee. 15. Comparative Sociology of Classroom Processes, School Organization and Achievement D.P. Baker, G.K. LeTendre. 16. Social Systems and Norms: A Coleman Approach B. Schneider.17. Values, Control, and Outcomes in Public and Private Schools C.H. Persell. V: The Study of School Outcomes. 18. Interactions between High Schools and Labor Markets J.E. Rosenbaum, S.A. Jones. 19. Vocational Secondary Education, Tracking, and Social Stratification Y. Shavit, W. Muller. 20. Transition from School to Work in Comparative Perspective A.C. Kerckhoff. 21. Pathways from School to Work in Germany and the US J.T. Mortimer, H. Kruger. 22. The Effects of Schooling on Individual Lives A.M. Pallas. VI: Policy Implications of Research in Sociology of Education. 23. Accountability in Education T.B. Hoffer. 24. The Fit and Misfit of Sociological Research and Education Policy D.L. Stevenson.

Sociological Perspectives on Black-White Inequalities in American Schooling.

This article discusses sociological contributions to an understanding of black and white inequality in education over the past several decades. It outlines political, cultural, and ideological perspectives on black-white inequality that are seen as guiding empirical research on access to schooling, educational opportunities in schools, and outcomes of schooling. These perspectives are also related to educational policy decisions aimed at reducing racial inequalities. The extant body of scholarship on schooling provides a solid foundation for sociological research on racial inequality in the 21st century

A Reconceptualization of School Effects

is an identity between the contextual effect specified in eq. 1 and that identified in the analysis of covariance method of assessing contextual effects (Hauser, 1971; see also Alwin, 1976b, 1976c). Notice that if the between-school regression coefficient and the within-school coefficient are the same, i.e. byKj = b, there can be no school context effect. This issue can be resolved quite easily by examining the statistical significance of the difference (see Schuessler, 1971). In the present analysis we estimate several models of the form:

Students' Interracial Friendships: Individual Characteristics, Structural Effects, and Racial Differences

This paper examines the effects of individual-, dyadic-, group-, and classroom-level variables on cross-race friendship choices. It is argued that structural and organizational characteristics of a students environment influence the likelihood of interracial friendliness. Hypotheses about the nature of these influences are tested with longitudinal data from 359 fourth- through seventh-grade students. The analysis shows that a students environment does indeed create both constraints on and opportunities for interracial friendship formation. In addition, it reveals that there are sharp differences in how these constraints and opportunities affect both black and white students.

The process of friendship formation

This paper poses two questions about the process of friendship formation: what is the relative stability of asymmetric and mutual friendship dyads and what is the nature of change in asymmetric dyads over time? These questions are examined in longitudinal sociometric data from five elementary classes. Change in friendship choices is shown to be at least partially embeddable as a continuous time, stationary Markov process and the unique Q matrices governing the process are determined. The findings show that unreciprocated friendship choices of the children in the sample are less stable than reciprocated choices and that their unreciprocated choices tend to be withdrawn rather than reciprocated over time.

Effects of Ability Grouping on Growth in Academic Achievement

This paper applies a theory of growth in academic achievement to the study of the effects of ability grouping on reading achievement. The theory sees students’ ability and effort determining how they utilize opportunities for learning provided by instruction. The mathematical specification of the theory allows for the estimation of models that show (a) ability grouping provides fewer opportunities for learning than whole class instruction but greater utilization of those opportunities; (b) high ability groups provide more opportunities than low groups; and (c) small homogeneous groups facilitate reading achievement more than larger, more heterogeneous groups.

The Stability of Students' Interracial Friendships.

In this paper we study the determinants of the stability of schoolchildrens interracial and same-race friendships. We argue that classroom organizational features and student characteristics affect the cohesiveness of social ties with consequences for friendship stability. The hypotheses are tested on longitudinal data from 375 fourththrough seventh-grade students in 16 desegregated classrooms. Descriptive and inferential analyses show that interracial friendships are almost as stable as same-race ones. Further, while the stability of interracial and same-race friendships is influenced by classroom characteristics, it is more strongly influenced by ascribed and achieved characteristics of students. We conclude that while individual characteristics of students are the strongest determinants of interracial friendship stability, schools can adopt policies and practices that promote stable friendships between black and white students.

Curriculum Differentiation and High School Achievement

This paper links curriculum differentiation in secondary schools to student achievement through instructional, interpersonal, and institutional processes. We argue that these processes operate differently across track and ability group levels. We use the NELS survey to analyze track effects and a longitudinal survey of ability grouping to examine ability group effects on student achievement. The results demonstrate that assignment to the Academic track or a higher level ability group accelerates growth in achievement, while assignment to the Vocational track or a lower level ability group decelerates it. The findings underscore the power of organizational characteristics of schools to differentially affect student learning.