Research on college admissions shows that all students tend to benefit from overmatching, but high-status students are most likely to be overmatched, and low-status students are most likely to be undermatched. This study examines whether mismatching takes place when students are sorted into classrooms in middle school. Given prior research on…

Significant attention has been given to how students become grouped or "tracked" through the courses they share in common. However, this work has yet to be connected to a targeted analysis of the way in which courses are grouped with other courses through the students they co-enroll. Drawing on insights from field theory, the author…

In this article, the author examines how school- and district-level racial/ethnic and socioeconomic compositions influence schools' use of different types of criminalized and medicalized school discipline. Using a large data set containing information on over 60,000 schools in over 6,000 districts, the authors uses multilevel modeling and a…

Peer relationships in secondary schools in two different cultural areas of India are compared. A general theory of status relations and a specification of the distinctive cultural features of each area are used to explain the observed differences in peer inequality, clique formation, petty deviance, putdowns, fashion consciousness, romantic…

Do black and white students hold similar beliefs about the causes of life opportunities? Disparities in academic performance between blacks and whites have been attributed, in part, to differing attitudes about the relationship between education and life opportunities. Advocates of oppositional culture theory argue that black students consider…

Discusses career patterns of administrators within a public school system administrative hierarchy, using flows of people between positions as measures of connections between positions. Specific career patterns studied included promotion to superintendency via central office administration and via secondary school supervision. (Author/DB)

This paper offers a framework for the sociological study of formal education, with particular reference to the social history of the United States

Four models of public education conflicted during the first half of the 19th century; paternalistic and corporate voluntarism, democratic localism, and incipient bureaucracy. The models and underlying value conflicts are analyzed, revealing a growing role for schools--mediating between social change and social structure. (Author/DB)

Examines how low-income African American high school students situate race, class, and gender in the process of status attainment. Finds that the students emphasized the importance of hard work, individual effort, and education but their overall views were complicated by their interpretation of how race, class, and gender affect life chances.…

Examines the effects of Malaysia's preferential educational policies regarding secondary school attainment for the nation's three ethnic groups. Investigates trends in gender and socioeconomic differences within each ethnic group. Finds that, over time, Malays were increasingly more likely to attain secondary school than were non-Malays. (CFR)

Uses state-level census data from 1900 to examine relationships between the social-structure characteristics and enrollments in three types of institutions of higher education: coeducational colleges and universities, women's colleges, and normal schools. Concluded that enrollments were differentially affected by characteristics of the social…

Compares three critical transitions at the end of elementary school and during secondary education prior to and after educational reform in the Netherlands. Concludes that the educational reform efforts promoted more equal educational opportunities by increased student participation. (CFR)

Reports on a study of how engenderment (socialization to gender) operates in both male and female single-sex and coeducational independent schools. Finds that teachers initiated most of the incidents in six categories of sex discrimination. Asserts that schools with active gender equity policies were the least likely sites of sexism. (CFR)