Schools and Inequality: Reflector, Compensator, and Distractor

• In Event: 478 - Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. Understanding and Identifying Sources of Educational Inequalities

Abstract

What role do schools play in the stratification system? A half century of scholarship since the Coleman Report has failed to produce a clear understanding of how schools matter. I focus on the evidence regarding socioeconomic gaps in cognitive skills and conclude that schools primarily reflect inequalities that already exist in broader society. And while both compensatory and reproductive forces are observable in schools, the best evidence indicates that schools’ compensatory mechanisms are stronger. Schools reproduce inequality in an indirect way, however—they divert attention from its real sources.

Author

• Douglas B. Downey, The Ohio State University