The United States experienced a tremendous expansion of higher education after the Second World War. However, this expansion has not led to a substantial reduction to class inequalities at elite universities, where the admissions process is growing even more selective. In his classic studies of French education and society, Pierre Bourdieu…

The Stanford Preschool Internal-External Scale (SPIES) was administered to middle class kindergarten children to investigate whether the characteristics of the test would remain stable as it did for the normative sample. (Author/DEP)

THREE GROUPS OF FIRST- AND SECOND-GRADE CHILDREN, TWO LOWER-CLASS AND ONE MIDDLE-CLASS, WERE ASKED TO LEARN AND RECALL SEQUENCES OF WORDS AT FOUR LEVELS OF CONCEPTUAL DIFFICULTY--NONSENSE SYLLABLES, HIGH FREQUENCY NOUNS, ANOMALOUS SENTENCES, AND MEANINGFUL SENTENCES. IT WAS HYPOTHESIZED THAT THE STUDENTS' VERBAL MEMORY WOULD INCREASE WITH…

The study described here was intended to test Basil Bernstein's contention that different types of speech patterns can be identified for lower and middle class children, and that lower class children may, because of their speech behavior, have difficulty in performing cognitive tasks necessary for success in the school situation. Spontaneous…