On class differentials in educational attainment

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.academic performance ͉ educational choice ͉ logistic regression ͉ counterfactual ͉ social inequality S ocial class differentials in educational attainment have been extensively studied. Children from more advantaged class backgrounds have higher levels of educational attainment than children from less advantaged class backgrounds. Sociological evidence suggests that there has been a relatively high degree of temporal stability in the association between class origin and educational attainment in modern industrial societies (although where change has occurred it has generally been in the direction of a weakening association) (1, 2). Explanations have focused on how class differences in economic, social, and cultural resources lead to differences in academic performance. 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.The distinction between primary and secondary effects has been largely neglected in empirical research, although a notable exception is a study of Swedish students by Erikson and Jonsson (4). In the present paper, we develop their method and apply it to educational choices made by 16-year-old students in England and Wales. At age 16, students complete compulsory education, and then choose whether they will continue in full-time education to take advanced level academic qualifications (A levels) or alternatively enter vocational education or the labor market. We first show that both primary and secondary effects are present in creating class differentials in entering A-level education.To investigate the relative importance of primary and secondary effects, we use a counterfactual analysis implemented by numerical integration. We suppose an idealized process that goes from performance to choice to outcome. In our implied model, therefore, a student achieves a level of academic performance and then makes their choice about whether to continue to A-level education. It is assumed that the choice characteristics of students of one class can be combined with the performa...

Pure ethnic gaps in educational attainment and school to work transitions: When do they arise?

“…Sociologists Boudon (1974) and Erikson et al (2010) argue that observed social class schooling differentials result both from the "primary effects" of differing levels of academic performance, i.e. passing or failing, and from the "secondary effects" in the educational choices, i.e.…”

Leistungen, Leistungsfähigkeit und Leistungsgrenzen der empirischen Bildungsforschung

“…Lange Zeit unbefriedigend geklärt war jedoch die quantitative Relation von primären und sekundären Effekten. Methodisch elaborierte Studien aus dem Vereinigten Königreich und Schweden schätzten den Anteil sekundärer Effekte an sozialer Ungleichheit der Bildungsbeteiligung je nach Untersuchungskohorte und Schätzver-fahren auf 20 bis maximal 50 % der Variabilität (Erikson et al 2005;Jackson et al 2007;Erikson & Rudolphi 2009). Für Deutschland liegen drei Untersuchungen vor, die es erlauben, primäre und sekundäre Disparitätseffekte beim Übergang in die weiterführenden Schulen quantitativ zu bestimmen.…”

Socio-Economic and Gender Inequalities in Educational Trajectories upon Completion of Lower Secondary Education in Russia

“…P. 212] for a long time, but more and more empirical studies on inequality in education have been discriminating between primary and secondary effects lately. A statistical method was developed, allowing for the identification of primary and secondary effects of social inequality in educational transitions [Erikson et al, 2005]. A recent comparative study using this method analyzes primary and secondary effects in educational transition to different levels for the US and several European countries [Jackson, 2013].…”