Inequality

Fülszöveg

Christopher Jencks' Inequality is a landmark in social and educational thought in America-for it presents the evidence to overturn the most cherished assumptions of liberal reform in our society. Jencks and his associates challenge much of contemporary social policy with these startiing conclusions: • educational reform cannot bring about economic or social equality; • genes and IQ scores have relatively little effect on economic success; and • school quality has little effect on achievement or on economic success. Most Americans have assumed that equalizing opportunity, especially educational opportunity, would produce more social mobility and more aduit equality. In arguing that this view is fundamentally wrong, Jencks and his colleagues at the Center for Educational Policy Research at Harvard University draw upon a wide rangé of major surveys conducted since 1960: Census Bureau studies of social mobility and income distribution; Project Talent's surveys of American high schools;... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Christopher Jencks' Inequality is a landmark in social and educational thought in America-for it presents the evidence to overturn the most cherished assumptions of liberal reform in our society. Jencks and his associates challenge much of contemporary social policy with these startiing conclusions: • educational reform cannot bring about economic or social equality; • genes and IQ scores have relatively little effect on economic success; and • school quality has little effect on achievement or on economic success. Most Americans have assumed that equalizing opportunity, especially educational opportunity, would produce more social mobility and more aduit equality. In arguing that this view is fundamentally wrong, Jencks and his colleagues at the Center for Educational Policy Research at Harvard University draw upon a wide rangé of major surveys conducted since 1960: Census Bureau studies of social mobility and income distribution; Project Talent's surveys of American high schools; the Equality of Educational Opportunity Survey; and many others. They examine the effect of family background, years of schooling, and IQ scores on aduit success. They alsó look at somé ofthe speciíicquestions now troubling parents, teachers, and educational policy makers: the effect of expenditure differences in American schools, the effect of Vissza