9.5E: Education
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Educational attainment is tied to social class, with upper class individuals acquiring higher degrees from more prestigious schools.
Learning Objectives
- Discuss three factors contributing to educational inequality
Key Points
- Those in high social classes are likely to have greater educational attainment than those in low social classes.
- Educational inequality is also perpetuated by legacy admission.
- Because members of high social classes tend to be better educated and have higher incomes, they are more able to provide educational advantages to their children as well.
- Educational inequality is one factor that perpetuates the class divide across generations.
Key Terms
- educational attainment : Educational attainment is a term commonly used by statisticians to refer to the highest degree of education an individual has completed.
- private school : A fee-charging private or independent school.
- legacy student : A student who is admitted to a school (often a college or university), primarily because one or both of their parents are alumni of the same institution.
Education is a major component of social class, both directly and indirectly. Directly, individuals from higher social classes are more likely to have the means to attend more prestigious schools, and are therefore more likely to receive higher educations. Indirectly, individuals who benefit from such higher education are more likely to land prestigious jobs, and in turn, higher salaries. Just as education and social class are closely intertwined, stratification in education contributes to stratification in social class.
Educational attainment refers to the level of schooling a person completes — for instance, high school, some college, college, or a graduate degree. Upper class individuals are likely to attend schools of higher quality and of greater prestige than those attended by their lower class counterparts. Because members of high social classes tend to be better educated and have higher incomes, they are able to offer greater educational advantages, such as private schooling, to their children as well.
Upper-class parents are better able to send their children not only to exclusive private schools, but also to public state-funded schools. Such schools are likely to be of higher quality in affluent areas than in impoverished ones, since they are funded by property taxes within the school district. Wealthy areas will provide more property taxes as revenue, which leads to higher quality schools. Educational inequality is one factor that perpetuates the class divide across generations.
Such educational inequality is further reinforced by legacy admission, the preference given by educational institutions to applicants who are related to alumni of that institution. Germane to to university and college admissions (particularly in the United States), this practice emerged after World War I, primarily in response to the resulting immigrant influx. Ivy League institutions admit roughly 10% to 30% of students from each incoming class based on this factor.