1932

Abstract

Despite their egalitarian ethos, schools are social sorting machines, creating categories that serve as the foundation of later life inequalities. In this review, we apply the theory of categorical inequality to education, focusing particularly on contemporary American schools. We discuss the range of categories that schools create, adopt, and reinforce, as well as the mechanisms through which these categories contribute to production of inequalities within schools and beyond. We argue that this categorical inequality frame helps to resolve a fundamental tension in the sociology of education and inequality, shedding light on how schools can—at once—be egalitarian institutions and agents of inequality. By applying the notion of categorical inequality to schools, we provide a set of conceptual tools that can help researchers understand, measure, and evaluate the ways in which schools structure social inequality.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053354
2017-07-31
2024-03-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/soc/43/1/annurev-soc-060116-053354.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053354&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Alexander K, Entwisle D, Olson L. 2014. The Long Shadow: Family Background, Disadvantaged Urban Youth, and the Transition to Adulthood New York: Russell Sage Found.
  2. Ashforth BE, Mael F. 1989. Social identity theory and the organization. Acad. Manag. Rev. 14:120–39 [Google Scholar]
  3. Attewell P, Lavin D, Domina T, Levey T. 2007. Passing the Torch: Does Higher Education For the Disadvantaged Pay Off Across the Generations? New York: Russell Sage Found.
  4. Baker D. 2014. The Schooled Society: the Educational Transformation of Global Culture Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press
  5. Ball S, Eckel C, Grossman PJ, Zame W. 2001. Status in Markets. Q. J. Econ. 116:1161–88 [Google Scholar]
  6. Baron JN, Bielby WT. 1980. Bringing the firms back in: stratification, segmentation, and the organization of work. Am. Sociol. Rev. 45:737–65 [Google Scholar]
  7. Bassok D, Reardon SF. 2013. “Academic redshirting” in kindergarten: prevalence, patterns, and implications. Educ. Eval. Policy Anal. 35:3283–97 [Google Scholar]
  8. Baumert J, Nagy G, Lehmann R. 2012. Cumulative advantages and the emergence of social and ethnic inequality: Matthew effects in reading and mathematics development within elementary schools. Child Dev 83:41347–67 [Google Scholar]
  9. Beattie IR. 2002. Are all “adolescent econometricians” created equal? Racial, class, and gender differences in college enrollment. Sociol. Educ. 75:19–43 [Google Scholar]
  10. Benabou R, Tirole J. 2003. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Rev. Econ. Stud. 70:3489–520 [Google Scholar]
  11. Billingham CM, Hunt MO. 2016. School racial composition and parental choice: new evidence on the preferences of white parents in the United States. Sociol. Educ. 89:299–117 [Google Scholar]
  12. Binder AJ, Davis DB, Bloom N. 2015. Career funneling: how elite students learn to define and desire “prestigious” jobs. Sociol. Educ. 89:20–39 [Google Scholar]
  13. Blau PM. 1974. On the Nature of Organizations New York: Wiley
  14. Boli J, Ramirez FO, Meyer JW. 1985. Explaining the origins and expansion of mass education. Comp. Educ. Rev. 29:2145–70 [Google Scholar]
  15. Bonilla-Silva E. 2006. Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield
  16. Booher-Jennings J. 2005. Below the bubble: “educational triage” and the Texas accountability system. Am. Educ. Res. J. 42:2231–68 [Google Scholar]
  17. Bourdieu P. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  18. Bowen WG, Bok D. 1999. The Shape of the River: Long-term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  19. Bowker GC, Star SL. 2000. Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences Cambridge, MA: MIT press
  20. Breen R, Goldthorpe JH. 1997. Explaining educational differentials towards a formal rational action theory. Ration. Soc. 9:3275–305 [Google Scholar]
  21. Breen R, Jonsson JO. 2005. Inequality of opportunity in comparative perspective: recent research on educational attainment and social mobility. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 31:223–43 [Google Scholar]
  22. Brewer DJ, Rees DI, Argys LM. 1996. Detracking America's schools: equity at zero cost?. J. Policy Anal. Manag. 15:4623–45 [Google Scholar]
  23. Calarco JM. 2011. “I need help!” Social class and children's help-seeking in elementary school. Am. Sociol. Rev. 76:6862–82 [Google Scholar]
  24. Carey N, Farris E. 1994. Curricular differentiation in public high schools Rep. 95-360, Natl. Cent. Educ. Stat. Washington, DC:
  25. Condron DJ. 2011. Egalitarianism and Educational Excellence Compatible Goals for Affluent Societies. Educ. Res. 40:247–55 [Google Scholar]
  26. Davis D, Binder A. 2016. Selling students: the rise of corporate partnership programs in university career centers. Res. Sociol. Organ. 46:395–422 [Google Scholar]
  27. Dee TS. 2004. Teachers, race, and student achievement in a randomized experiment. Rev. Econ. Stat. 86:1195–210 [Google Scholar]
  28. Dee TS, Penner E. 2016. The causal effects of cultural relevance: evidence from an ethnic studies curriculum NBER Work. Pap. 21865, Natl. Bur. Econ. Res Cambridge, MA:
  29. DiPrete TA, Eirich GM. 2006. Cumulative advantage as a mechanism for inequality: a review of theoretical and empirical developments. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 32:271–97 [Google Scholar]
  30. Domina T, Hanselman P, Hwang N, McEachin A. 2016. Detracking and tracking up mathematics course placements in California middle schools, 2003–2013. Am. Educ. Res. J. 53:1229–66 [Google Scholar]
  31. Domina T, Penner AM, Penner EK. 2016. “Membership has its privileges”: status incentives and categorical inequality in education. Sociol. Sci. 3:264–95 [Google Scholar]
  32. Domina T, Saldana J. 2012. Does raising the bar level the playing field? Mathematics curricular intensification and inequality in American high schools, 1982–2004. Am. Educ. Res. J. 49:4685–708 [Google Scholar]
  33. Downey DB, Condron DJ. 2016. Fifty years since the Coleman Report: rethinking the relationship between schools and inequality. Sociol. Educ. 89:207–20 [Google Scholar]
  34. Downey DB, Pribesh S. 2004. When race matters: teachers' evaluations of students' classroom behavior. Sociol. Educ. 77:4267–82 [Google Scholar]
  35. Duflo E, Dupas P, Kremera M. 2011. Peer effects, teacher incentives, and the impact of tracking: evidence from a randomized evaluation in Kenya. Am. Econ. Rev. 101:51739–74 [Google Scholar]
  36. Espeland WN, Sauder M. 2016. Engines of Anxiety: Academic Rankings, Reputation, and Accountability New York: Russell Sage Found.
  37. Evans L, Davies K. 2000. No sissy boys here: a content analysis of the representation of masculinity in elementary school reading textbooks. Sex Roles 42:3–4255–70 [Google Scholar]
  38. Feliciano C. 2009. Education and ethnic identity formation among children of Latin American and Caribbean immigrants. Sociol. Perspect. 52:135–58 [Google Scholar]
  39. Figlio DN, Page ME. 2002. School choice and the distributional effects of ability tracking: Does separation increase inequality?. J. Urban Econ. 51:3497–514 [Google Scholar]
  40. Fisher v. University of Texas 579 US _ 2016.
  41. Fishkin J. 2014. Bottlenecks: A New Theory of Equal Opportunity Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  42. Fiske ST, Taylor SE. 2013. Social Cognition: From Brains to Culture Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
  43. Ford DY, III Harris JJ, Tyson CA, Trotman MF. 2001. Beyond deficit thinking: providing access for gifted African American students. Roeper Rev 24:252–58 [Google Scholar]
  44. Fordham S, Ogbu JU. 1986. Black students' school success: coping with the “burden of ‘acting white.’”. Urban Rev 18:176–206 [Google Scholar]
  45. Fox L. 2016. Seeing potential. AERA Open 2:11–17 [Google Scholar]
  46. Fryer RG, Levitt SD. 2006. The black-white test score gap through third grade. Am. Law Econ. Rev. 8:2249–81 [Google Scholar]
  47. Furlong A. 2008. The Japanese hikikomori phenomenon: acute social withdrawal among young people. Sociol. Rev. 56:2309–25 [Google Scholar]
  48. Gamoran A. 1992. The variable effects of high school tracking. Am. Sociol. Rev. 57:812–28 [Google Scholar]
  49. Gamoran A, Mare RD. 1989. Secondary school tracking and educational inequality: compensation, reinforcement, or neutrality?. Am. J. Sociol. 94:1146–83 [Google Scholar]
  50. Garfinkel I, Rainwater L, Smeeding T. 2010. Wealth and Welfare States: Is America a Laggard or Leader? Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  51. Gershenson S, Holt SB, Papageorge NW. 2016. Who believes in me? The effect of student–teacher demographic match on teacher expectations. Econ. Educ. Rev. 52:209–24 [Google Scholar]
  52. Goldin CD, Katz LF. 2009. The Race Between Education and Technology Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  53. Gratz v. Bollinger 539 U.S. 244 2003.
  54. Grodsky E. 2007. Compensatory sponsorship in higher education. Am. J. Sociol. 112:61662–712 [Google Scholar]
  55. Grutter v. Bollinger 539 US 306 2003.
  56. Gutmann A, Ben‐Porath S. 1987. Democratic Education New York: John Wiley & Sons
  57. Hallinan MT. 1994. Tracking: from theory to practice. Sociol. Educ. 67:279–84 [Google Scholar]
  58. Hanselman P, Domina T, Hwang N. 2016. Organizational inequality regimes in school: provision, allocation, and production of educational opportunities Work. Pap. WR-1155 RAND Corp. Santa Monica, CA:
  59. Hanushek EA, Rivkin SG. 2006. School quality and the black-white achievement gap NBER Work. Pap. 12651, Natl. Bur. Econ. Res. Cambridge, MA:
  60. Hinrichs P. 2010. The effect of the national school lunch program on education and health. J. Policy Anal. Manag. 29:479–505 [Google Scholar]
  61. Hirschman D, Berrey E, Greenland FR. 2016. Dequantifying diversity: affirmative action and admissions at the University of Michigan. Theory Soc 45:265–301 [Google Scholar]
  62. Hout M. 2012. Social and economic returns to college education in the United States. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 38:379–400 [Google Scholar]
  63. Hu CT. 1984. The historical background: examinations and control in pre‐modern China. Comp. Educ. 20:17–26 [Google Scholar]
  64. Irizarry Y. 2015. Selling students short: racial differences in teachers’ evaluations of high, average, and low performing students. Soc. Sci. Res. 52:522–38 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.04.002 [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  65. Jiménez TR, Horowitz AL. 2013. When white is just alright: how immigrants redefine achievement and reconfigure the ethnoracial hierarchy. Am. Sociol. Rev. 78:849–71 [Google Scholar]
  66. Kaestle CF. 1983. Pillars of the Republic New York: Hill & Wang
  67. Kalogrides D, Loeb S. 2013. Different teachers, different peers: the magnitude of student sorting within schools. Educ. Res. 42:6304–16 [Google Scholar]
  68. Karabel J. 2006. The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  69. Kelly S, Carbonaro W. 2012. Curriculum tracking and teacher expectations: evidence from discrepant course taking models. Soc. Psychol. Educ. 15:3271–94 [Google Scholar]
  70. Kerckhoff AC. 1995. Institutional arrangements and stratification processes in industrial societies. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 21:323–47 [Google Scholar]
  71. Khan SR. 2011. Privilege: the Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  72. Kubitschek WN, Hallinan MT. 1998. Tracking and students' friendships. Soc. Psychol. Q. 61:1–15 [Google Scholar]
  73. Lamont M, Da Silva GM. 2009. Complementary rather than contradictory: diversity and excellence in peer review and admissions in American higher education. Twenty-First Century Soc 4:11–15 [Google Scholar]
  74. Lauen DL, Gaddis SM. 2012. Shining a light or fumbling in the dark? The effects of NCLB's subgroup-specific accountability on student achievement. Educ. Eval. Policy Anal. 34:2185–208 [Google Scholar]
  75. Lee J, Zhou M. 2015. The Asian American Achievement Paradox New York: Russell Sage Found.
  76. Legewie J, DiPrete TA. 2012. School context and the gender gap in educational achievement. Am. Sociol. Rev. 77:3463–85 [Google Scholar]
  77. Lehmann N. 1996. The Big Test New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  78. Lewis AE. 2003. Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and Communities New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press
  79. Lewis AE, Diamond JB. 2015. Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  80. Long MC, Saenz V, Tienda M. 2010. Policy transparency and college enrollment: Did the Texas top ten percent law broaden access to the public flagships?. Ann. Am. Acad. Polit. Soc. Sci. 627:182–105 [Google Scholar]
  81. Lovaglia MJ, Lucas JW, Thye SR, Markovsky B. 1998. Status processes and mental ability test scores. Am. J. Sociol. 104:195–228 [Google Scholar]
  82. Lucas SR. 1999. Tracking Inequality: Stratification and Mobility in American High Schools New York: Teach. Coll. Press
  83. Lucas SR. 2001. Effectively maintained inequality: education transitions, track mobility, and social background effects. Am. J. Sociol. 106:61642–90 [Google Scholar]
  84. Macedo S. 2003. Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  85. Mann H. 1848. Report No. 12 of the Massachusetts School Board. The Republic and the School: Horace Mann and the Education of Free Men LA Cremin 87–94 New York: Teach. Coll. Press [Google Scholar]
  86. Manski CF. 1993. Adolescent econometricians: How do youth infer the returns to schooling?. Studies of Supply and Demand in Higher Education CT Clotfelter, M Rothschild 43–60 Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  87. Massey DS. 2007. Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System New York: Russell Sage Found.
  88. McCall L, Percheski C. 2010. Income inequality: new trends and research directions. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 36:329–47 [Google Scholar]
  89. McDermott R. 2001. The acquisition of a child by a learning disability. Understanding Practice: Perspectives on Activity and Context S Chailkin, J Lave 269–305 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  90. McDiarmid G, Pratt D. 1971. Teaching Prejudice: A Content Analysis of Social Studies Textbooks Authorized for Use in Ontario Toronto: Ontario Inst. Stud. Educ.
  91. McDonough PM. 1997. Choosing Colleges: How Social Class and Schools Structure Opportunity Albany, NY: SUNY Press
  92. Meyer JW. 1977. The effects of education as an institution. Am. J. Sociol. 83:55–77 [Google Scholar]
  93. Morgan PL, Farkas G, Hillemeier MM, Mattison R, Maczuga S. et al. 2015. Minorities are disproportionately underrepresented in special education longitudinal evidence across five disability conditions. Educ. Res. 44:5278–92 [Google Scholar]
  94. Morgan SL. 2005. On the Edge of Commitment: Educational Attainment and Race in the United States Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press
  95. Morning A. 2008. Reconstructing race in science and society: biology textbooks, 1952–2002. Am. J. Sociol. 114:S106–37 [Google Scholar]
  96. Moss HJ. 2010. Schooling Citizens: The Struggle for African American Education in Antebellum America Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press
  97. Neal D, Schanzenbach DW. 2010. Left behind by design: proficiency counts and test-based accountability. Rev. Econ. Stat. 92:2263–83 [Google Scholar]
  98. Nehm RH, Young R. 2008. “Sex hormones” in secondary school biology textbooks. Sci. Educ. 17:101175–90 [Google Scholar]
  99. Oakes J, Guiton G. 1995. Matchmaking: the dynamics of high school tracking decisions. Am. Educ. Res. J. 32:13–33 [Google Scholar]
  100. Papay JP, Murnane RJ, Willett JB. 2016. The impact of test score labels on human-capital investment decisions. J. Hum. Resour. 51:2357–88 [Google Scholar]
  101. Perez W. 2015. Americans by Heart: Undocumented Latino Students and the Promise of Higher Education New York: Teach. Coll. Press
  102. Peters W. 1971. A Class Divided Garden City, NY: Doubleday
  103. Poppendieck J. 2010. Free for All: Fixing School Food in America Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  104. Potter D, Morris DS. 2016. Family and schooling experiences in racial/ethnic academic achievement gaps: a cumulative perspective. Sociol. Perspect. 60:132–67 [Google Scholar]
  105. Raudenbush SW, Eschmann RD. 2015. Does schooling increase or reduce social inequality. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 41:443–70 [Google Scholar]
  106. Reardon SF, Owens A. 2014. 60 Years after Brown: trends and consequences of school segregation. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 40:199–218 [Google Scholar]
  107. Reback R. 2008. Teaching to the rating: school accountability and the distribution of student achievement. J. Public Econ. 92:51394–415 [Google Scholar]
  108. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke 438 U.S. 265 1978.
  109. Rich P. 2016. Parents, schools, and segregated neighborhoods: choice and avoidance in stratified educational contexts PhD Thesis, NYU
  110. Ridgeway CL, Correll SJ. 2006. Consensus and the creation of status beliefs. Soc. Forces 85:1431–53 [Google Scholar]
  111. Rivera LA. 2012. Hiring as cultural matching: the case of elite professional service firms. Am. Sociol. Rev. 77:6999–1022 [Google Scholar]
  112. Rivera LA. 2016. Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  113. Rosenbaum JE. 1976. Making Inequality: The Hidden Curriculum of High School Tracking New York: John Wiley & Sons
  114. Rosenbaum JE. 2001. Beyond College for All: Career Paths for the Forgotten Half New York: Russell Sage Found.
  115. Rumberger RW. 2011. Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can Be Done About It Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  116. Saito T. 1998. Shakaiteki hikikomori: owaranai shishunki [Social withdrawal: unfinished puberty]. Tokyo: PHP-Kenkyujo
  117. Schneider T. 2008. Social inequality in educational participation in the German school system in a longitudinal perspective: pathways into and out of the most prestigious school track. Eur. Sociol. Rev. 24:4511–26 [Google Scholar]
  118. Schofer E, Wick S. 2008. The effects of educational selectivity and curricular differentiation on national income inequality: cross-national evidence, 1970–2002 Presented Am. Sociol. Assoc. Meet., August 1–4 Boston, MA:
  119. Shifrer D, Callahan RM, Muller C. 2013. Equity or marginalization? The high school course-taking of students labeled with a learning disability. Am. Educ. Res. J. 50:656–82 [Google Scholar]
  120. Sleeter CE, Grant CA. 2011. Race, class, gender and disability in current textbooks. The Textbook as Discourse: Sociocultural Dimensions of American Schoolbooks EF Provenzo Jr., AN Shaver, M Bello 183–215 NY: Routledge [Google Scholar]
  121. Soares JA. 2015. SAT Wars: The Case for Test-Optional College Admissions New York: Teach. Coll. Press
  122. Sørensen AB. 1970. Organizational differentiation of students and educational opportunity. Sociol. Educ. 43:355–76 [Google Scholar]
  123. Stainback K, Tomaskovic-Devey D, Skaggs S. 2010. Organizational approaches to inequality: inertia, relative power, and environments. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 36:225–47 [Google Scholar]
  124. Stevens ML. 2009. Creating a Class: College Admissions and the Education of Elites Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  125. Thorne B. 1993. Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press
  126. Tilly C. 1999. Durable Inequality Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  127. Timmermans S, Epstein S. 2010. A world of standards but not a standard world: toward a sociology of standards and standardization. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 36:69–89 [Google Scholar]
  128. Tomaskovic-Devey D, Avent-Holt D, Zimmer C, Harding S. 2009. The categorical generation of organizational inequality: a comparative test of Tilly's durable inequality. Res. Soc. Stratification Mobility 27:3128–42 [Google Scholar]
  129. Torche F. 2016. Torche comment on Downey and Condron. Sociol. Educ. 89:3229–30 [Google Scholar]
  130. Tyack DB, Cuban L. 1995. Tinkering Toward Utopia Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  131. Tyack DB, Hansot E. 1992. Learning Together: A History of Coeducation in American Public Schools New York: Russell Sage Found.
  132. Tyson K. 2011. Integration Interrupted: Tracking, Black Students, and Acting White After Brown Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  133. Valenzuela A. 2010. Subtractive Schooling: US-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring Albany, NY: SUNY Press
  134. Wang MT, Eccles JS. 2013. School context, achievement motivation, and academic engagement: a longitudinal study of school engagement using a multidimensional perspective. Learn. Instr. 28:12–23 [Google Scholar]
  135. Wells AS, Oakes J. 1996. Potential pitfalls of systemic reform: Early lessons from research on detracking. Sociol. Educ. 69:135–43 [Google Scholar]
  136. Zimmer R. 2003. A new twist in the educational tracking debate. Econ. Educ. Rev. 22:3307–15 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053354
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053354
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error