Allocation, Choice, and Stratification within High Schools: How the Sorting Machine Copes

Delany, Brian

doi:10.1086/443978

Cited by 60 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…An important implication of our decision is that we are essentially assuming that the courses defining local positions were relatively stable from 1994-95 to 1995-96. Given the stability of course offerings and master schedules (Delany 1991), we believe this to be a reasonable assumption.…”

Section: Appendix B Identifying Local Positionsmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Social Dynamics of Mathematics Coursetaking in High School

Frank

Muller

Schiller

et al. 2008

American Journal of Sociology

283

193

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This study examines how high school boys' and girls' academic effort, in the form of math coursetaking, is influenced by members of their social contexts. The authors argue that adolescents' social contexts are defined, in part, by clusters of students (termed "local positions") who take courses that differentiate them from others. Using course transcript data from the recent Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study, the authors employ a new network algorithm to identify local positions in 78 high schools in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Incorporating the local positions into multilevel models of math coursetaking, the authors find that girls are highly responsive to the social norms in their local positions, which contributes to homogeneity within and heterogeneity between local positions.The adolescent is choosing how to invest time, and … the choices depend greatly on the social system surrounding them. (Coleman 1996, p. 346) This study examines how high school boys' and girls' academic effort, in the form of mathematics coursetaking, is influenced by their social contexts. The literature on sociology of education has established how adolescent coursetaking is influenced by schools' decisions and resource allocations (e.g., Natriello, Pallas, and Alexander 1989;Hallinan 1991;Useem 1992). Other sociologists have described education, independent of the school's function as a social institution, in terms of status attainment, arguing that adolescents and young adults are influenced by their parents' education, occupations, and aspirations (Sewell and Hauser 1976;Steelman and Powell 1991). Complementing status attainment theory, standard economic models directly address parents' motivations for investing in their children for long- (Adelman 1999). But, as implied by Coleman's quote in the epigraph above, while adolescents may be influenced by adults, including school faculty, administrators, and parents, they may also respond to their peers in making short-and longterm educational decisions (see also Sizer 1984;Crosnoe, Cavanagh, and Elder 2003; RiegleCrumb, Farkas, and Muller 2006). In this article we examine how an adolescent may be influenced in particular by the cluster of students with whom she takes courses-which we term the local position. NIH Public AccessWe focus specifically on effort in the domain of math coursetaking for four reasons. First, math has gained increasing attention in the popular press (e. Simpkins, Davis-Kean, and Eccles 2006) for its potential contributions to society. Second, math is an important gateway to other advanced courses and college entry and therefore to pursuing human capital (Sells 1973;Adelman 1999;Simpkins et al. 2006;Sadler and Tai 2007). Third, math has long been a key to the social organization of the school, as it is used to delineate academic tracks (Stevenson, Schiller, and Schneider 1994;Gamoran and Hannigan 2000;Lucas and Good 2001). Fourth, although math coursetaking has been the focus of considerable empirical study, ...

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Section: Appendix B Identifying Local Positionsmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Social Dynamics of Mathematics Coursetaking in High School

Frank

Muller

Schiller

et al. 2008

American Journal of Sociology

283

193

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“…The data tell us that decisions concerning the allocation of teaching assignments usually are the prerogative of school principals (Ingersoll, 2003a). School managers are charged with the oftendifficult task of providing a broad array of programs and courses with limited resources, limited time, a limited budget, and a limited teaching staff (Delany, 1991). In this context, principals may find that assigning teachers to teach out of their fields often is more convenient, less expensive and less time-consuming than the alternatives.…”

Section: Out-of-field Teachingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Misdiagnosing the Teacher Quality Problem

Ingersoll¹

2007

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Few educational issues have received more attention in recent times than the problem of ensuring that our nation's elementary and secondary classrooms are all staffed with quality teachers. There is consensus that the quality of teachers and teaching matter-and undoubtedly are among the most important factors shaping the learning and growth of students. Moreover, there is consensus that serious problems exist with the quality of teachers and teaching in the United States. Beyond that, however, there appears to be little consensus and much disagreement-especially over what teacher quality entails and what the sources of, and solutions to, the problem might be.This issue of CPRE Policy Briefs summarizes the findings on issues related to teacher quality in the chapter authored by me in the book, The State of Education Policy Research (Cohen, Fuhrman, Mosher, Eds., 2007). This report also draws on discussions that took place during a summer, 2006, policy briefing on teacher labor-market issues held in Chicago and sponsored by the Spencer Foundation.In this brief, I will briefly discuss three related diagnoses and their attendant prescriptions: restrictive occupational entry barriers; teacher shortages; and underqualified/underprepared teachers. These diagnoses are not the only explanations for the problem of low quality of teachers and teaching. Nor are these views universally held-indeed, each is the subject of much contention-and proponents of one are at times opponents of another. But all are prominent views, all are part of the conventional wisdom as to what ails teaching, and all have had an impact on research, reform, and policy.

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“…Eisenkraft has stated that Michael Faraday, one of the greatest experimentalists of the 19th century, might not have succeeded in today's physics classes because his mathematical abilities were considered deficient-which is why he created the field concept to understand magnetism [30]. Another factor related to physics participation has been school counselors' judgments about students' likely career paths, which may have determined what courses they could take [31,32]. Consequently, a student's access to physics can be limited by past opportunities in mathematics and science and their perceived potential for success.…”

Section: Motivation and Prior Research A Participation And Intermentioning

confidence: 99%

Physics teachers’ perspectives on factors that affect urban physics participation and accessibility

Kelly

2013

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

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Allocation, Choice, and Stratification within High Schools: How the Sorting Machine Copes

Cited by 60 publications

References 27 publications

The Social Dynamics of Mathematics Coursetaking in High School

The Social Dynamics of Mathematics Coursetaking in High School

Misdiagnosing the Teacher Quality Problem

Physics teachers’ perspectives on factors that affect urban physics participation and accessibility

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