On class differentials in educational attainment

(2005) - Robert Erikson, John H. Goldthorpe, Michelle Jackson, Meir Yaish, D. R. Cox

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Link:: https://pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0502433102
DOI:: 10.1073/pnas.0502433102
Links::
Tags:: #paper #SocialClass #Attainment #Education
Cite Key:: [@eriksonClassDifferentialsEducational2005]

Abstract

Social class differentials in educational attainment have been extensively studied in numerous countries. In this paper, we begin by examining class differentials in the progression to higher secondary education among 16-year-old children in England and Wales. As has been shown for other countries, the differentials result both from the primary effects of differing levels of academic performance of children of different class background and from the secondary effects of differences in the educational choices that these children make at given levels of performance. Through counterfactual analyses in which the performance distribution of one class is combined with the choice distribution of another, primary and secondary effects are decomposed and the former are shown to be roughly three times the size of the latter.

Notes

“As has been shown for other countries, the differentials result both from the primary effects of differing levels of academic performance of children of different class background and from the secondary effects of differences in the educational choices that these children make at given levels of performance.” (Erikson et al., 2005, p. 9730)

“primary and secondary effects are decomposed and the former are shown to be roughly three times the size of the latter.” (Erikson et al., 2005, p. 9730)

“However, Boudon (3) argued that, in addition to interclass differences in the distribution of academic performance, there are also interclass differences in the educational choices made at given levels of performance. He called these primary and secondary effects, respectively.” (Erikson et al., 2005, p. 9730)

“Although 62% of all students continue to A-level work, only 40% of working class students do so as compared with 77% of students of salariat background.” (Erikson et al., 2005, p. 9731)

“We represent primary effects by estimating the mean and standard deviation of the performance scores separately for each class, as shown in Table 3. These are then used to fit a normal distribution for each class” (Erikson et al., 2005, p. 9731)

“To represent secondary effects, we use separate binary logistic regressions for each class predicting whether a student with a given performance score, x, enters A-level education.” (Erikson et al., 2005, p. 9731)