Investigating Inequalities in Educational Attainment Michelle Jackson Department of Sociology...

Investigating Inequalities in Educational Attainment

Michelle JacksonDepartment of SociologyNuffield College, Oxford

Inequalities in educational attainment

Development of educational systems during 20th Century as response to changing economic and occupational structures

Sociological interest in class, ethnic and sex inequalities in educational attainment

E.g. Class inequalities Children of salariat (professional and managerial) background are

around five times more likely to take A-level courses, rather than taking vocational courses or leaving education than are children of working class background

In England&Wales, seems to be little change in extent of class inequalities over time

Primary and secondary effects

Boudon Primary effects – those that result from previous academic

performance (may be present due to range of factors – e.g. genetic, cultural)

Secondary effects – those that result from educational choices made by children

In this project, examining relative importance of primary and secondary effects in creating inequalities in educational attainment

Following results relate to class inequalities in transition to A-level in England and Wales (see reference)

Look at the transition to A level at three points in time When students are 16 in 1974, 1987, 1996

Data

Use data from National Child Development Study and Youth Cohort Study 1974: NCDS. Continuing birth cohort study covering all children born in

GB in one week in 1958 1987 and 1996: YCS. Study commissioned by DEE (now DfES).

Cohorts of young people in England and Wales aged 16 and upwards

Three variables in analyses Class background. Father’s (or head of household’s) Goldthorpe class.

Use 3 class simplification: salariat, intermediate+petty bourgeoisie, working class

Academic performance. Performance in public examinations in mathematics and English. Scores attached to grades summed, inverted, and standardised to be z-scores with mean of 0, s.d. of 1

Transition to A level In NCDS, whether student in education after age of 16 In YCS, question asking whether studying A/AS levels

Descriptive statisticsClass Year Per cent making transition 1: Information on

class&transition 2: Information on class, transition&performance

1974 40 51 Salariat 1987 62 65 1996 76 77 1974 19 29 Intermediate+PB 1987 40 44 1996 49 52 1974 10 17 Working 1987 28 33 1996 37 40 1974 21 33 All 1987 43 48 1996 58 61

Distinguishing primary and secondary effects

Run binary logistic regression Response variable: whether an individual reaches A level education or

not Explanatory variable: standardised performance scores (maths and

English scores)

Analyses run separately for each class

Three time points – 1974, 1987, 1996

Graphical representation of regression of transition to A level work on academic performance: 1974

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Academic performance

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Salariat Intermediate Working Class Salariat Intermediate Working Class

Data Range


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Data Range

Primary effects Differences in performance distributions between three classes

Primary effects clearly operate, with no evidence of general decline

Salariat Intermediate Working Diff SI Diff IW Diff SW 1974 0.42 -0.06 -0.39 0.48 0.33 0.81 1987 0.39 -0.05 -0.35 0.44 0.30 0.74 1996 0.39 -0.20 -0.47 0.59 0.27 0.86


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Data Range

Secondary effects

Over time, curves start sharp upward rise at lower levels of performance

Strong class differences in all three periods

Gaps between curves widest at intermediate levels of performance (around 0). Gaps narrow as move to either extreme of performance range

What is the relative importance of primary and secondary effects?

Integral to be evaluated:

By calculating integral, can distinguish two components of any class transition rate

Can calculate transition rates for each class Can carry out counterfactual analyses by combining performance

distribution for one class with transition propensities of another

Integrating

dxe

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bxa

bxax

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2/)( 22

where μ is the mean of the performance scores and σ the standard deviation and a is the constant and b the performance coefficient from the regression model

Results of integrationsCounterfactuals

What would happen if we allowed intermediate and working class children to maintain their own performance distribution, but to have the same transition propensities as salariat children?

1974 1987 1996 Class per cent Salariat Actual 49 63 76 Intermediate Actual 28 43 50 Counterfactual 35 52 56 Difference 7 9 6 Working Class Actual 17 33 38 Counterfactual 27 44 47 Difference 10 11 9

Odds ratios

1974 1987 1996 Actual 2.49 2.24 3.17 Salariat/Intermediate Counterfactual 1.75 1.61 2.49 Actual 1.90 1.56 1.58 Intermediate/Working Counterfactual 1.51 1.36 1.43 Actual 4.72 3.48 5.03 Salariat/Working Counterfactual 2.63 2.18 3.57

Conclusions and future work

Both primary and secondary effects are important. If we eliminated secondary effects, there would be substantial impact on class differentials

Will examine later educational transition – school to university

Method can be used to look at other inequalities. Will also examine ethnic and sex inequalities in educational attainment

Conclusions and future work Datasets: NCDS, BCS, YCS

Comparative analyses with colleagues from Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands

Policy implications Policy which could eliminate primary effects would clearly have great

impact However, effects of pre-school intervention likely to wash out later on.

Eliminating secondary effects might be a more plausible policy goal

Reference Jackson, M., Erikson, R., Goldthorpe, J. H. and Yaish, M. (forthcoming)

‘Primary and Secondary Effects in Class Differentials in Educational Attainment: the Transition to A-Level Courses in England and Wales, Acta Sociologica

Investigating Inequalities in Educational Attainment Michelle Jackson Department of Sociology...

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