The study of elites is enjoying a revival at a time of increasing economic inequality. Sociologists of education have been leaders in this area, researching how affluent families position their children to compete favorably in a highly stratified higher education system. However, scholars have done less research on how students do symbolic work of…

Sociologists have focused almost exclusively on academic aspects of status in higher education, despite the prominence of nonacademic activities, specifically athletics, in U.S. colleges and universities. We use the case of football to investigate whether intercollegiate sports influence the distribution of status in U.S. higher education.…

Elite universities are credited as launch points for the widest variety of meaningful careers. Yet, year after year at the most selective universities, nearly half the graduating seniors head to a surprisingly narrow band of professional options. Over the past few decades, this has largely been into the finance and consulting sectors, but…

This study uses qualitative data to investigate the process of social integration for minority students at a majority white high school and identifies significant gender differences in this process. At this school, integration is the result of processes that occur at two different levels of interaction. On the interpersonal level, African American…

The study presented here tested three theories of racial differences in academic performance among monoracial and multiracial high school students. These theories (status attainment, oppositional culture, and educational attitudes) were developed to explain differences in achievement among monoracial groups, but the study tested how the theories…

An argument on the conditions under which colleges will be able to affect the role allocation of students emphasizes that colleges may differ in the kinds of people they are expected to produce and in the kinds of changes in individuals that they can expect to affect. (Author/KM)

This article discusses a study undertaken to determine teacher's perceptions of their students based on factors such as socioeconomic status of the parents. The study involved regression analyses of correctly grouped and misplaced students. Findings indicated that parental socio- economic standing did not have substantial influence on curricular…

Evidence from Ghana is presented to show the possibility of downward mobility of elite children through lack of success in a selective educational system and the ability of children from lower status homes to use this system to overcome their initial disadvantages. (Author)

Discusses young children's conceptions of status and role based on sociolinguistic analyses of spontaneous role play. Links developmental features of social knowledge to contextual features of children's interactive experiences. (Author/CK)

Discusses Pierre Bourdieu's ideas on cultural capital in schools. Concludes that, defined in terms of exclusionary class-related practices and dispositions, cultural capital does not account for the relationship between social privilege and academic success. Notes too many conceptually distinct variables are labeled cultural capital, thus…

This paper presents and compares the two main theoretical models on stratification research: the Blau-Duncan, which focuses on the structure of status transmission, and the Wisconsin model, focusing on social psychological dynamics mediating interpersonal influences on individual attainment. (Author/JB)

Interest in research on the educational experiences of immigrant students has increased dramatically in recent years. After considerable debate over how to explain and interpret the educational experiences of immigrant students, scholars in the field are approaching a consensus: Be wary of claims that are based on static categories and broad…

Describes a cross-national study of teaching as a career goal among youth in rural regions of Norway, Germany, and the United States. Various determinants of career-choosing behavior were studied: sex-role factor, residence, father's occupational status, and achieved scholastic performance level. Results show that teaching allows lower status…

Four hundred and twenty-six randomly selected Ontario secondary school teachers rated 75 subject teaching positions on a prestige status scale. Academic subjects were accorded highest prestige, followed by commercial, then technical. Higher prestige was accorded by interacting teachers than by non-interacting teachers. (Author/JB)