In this paper, we explore the methodological implications of conducting qualitative interviews when researchers and participants come from different social classes. Singling out class on its own terms, rather than considering it as an auxiliary structural factor, we examine the unique challenges that arise during cross-class interviews. Such…

This study uses large-scale survey data and a multiple group, multilevel latent growth curve model to examine differential school effects between low, middle, and high social class composition public schools. The results show that the effects of school inputs and school practices on learning differ across the 3 subpopulations. Moreover, student…

Examines the reform in England and Wales that changed the secondary school system from a selective to a comprehensive type during the period 1965-74. Discusses middle class resistance to this change. Analyzes enrollment patterns to show how the middle class retained an advantage even as the schools changed. (MJP)

Now that the school effectiveness field is maturing, more refined and contextually sensitive observations about schools are possible. This paper focuses on socioeconomic status (SES) as one social context variable demonstrating substantial predictive power in numerous school improvement studies. Instead of viewing middle class behavior as superior…

Social class influences parent involvement in schooling. This book uses the case study method to compare family-school relationships in a working-class elementary school with those in an upper middle-class school, focusing on one first grade class in each school, and within the two schools, on 12 families, over the course of their children's first…

Reports on interplay between social and developmental processes in children's numerical understandings in working- and middle-class home settings. Methods included interviews with 78 children aged 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 years to assess their numerical understandings, interviews with the mothers about their children's everyday number activities, and…

Type and quality of nonfamilial child care were found to have no significant effect on peer social skills, sociability with strange adults, and child personality. The major determinants of personality maturity were background variables. Prior social skills and age were the best predictors of peer social skills. (PCB)

Investigates the relationship between widespread childhood poverty and the effect of deep parental rootedness in nonaffluence, focusing on middle-class Blacks. As a group, disproportionate numbers of them have experienced poverty. Results indicate attitudinal and behavioral legacies of poverty and suggest interclass similarities in the Black…

Noting that there is near universal agreement that children from families with higher socioeconomic status (SES) have access to more of the resources needed to support their positive development than do lower SES children, this monograph examines the myriad questions remaining regarding relations among SES, parenting, and child development from a…