Investigating Inequalities in Educational Attainment

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Investigating Inequalities in Educational
Attainment

• Michelle Jackson
• Department of Sociology
• Nuffield College, Oxford

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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 EnglandWales, seems to be little change in
  extent of class inequalities over time

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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

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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. Fathers (or head of
  households) Goldthorpe class. Use 3 class
  simplification salariat, intermediatepetty
  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

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Descriptive statistics
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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

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Graphical representation of regression of
transition to A level work on academic
performance 1974
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Graphical representation of regression of
transition to A level work on academic
performance 1987
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Graphical representation of regression of
transition to A level work on academic
performance 1996
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Primary effects

• Differences in performance distributions between
  three classes
• Primary effects clearly operate, with no evidence
  of general decline

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Graphical representation of regression of
transition to A level work on academic
performance 1974
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Graphical representation of regression of
transition to A level work on academic
performance 1987
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Graphical representation of regression of
transition to A level work on academic
performance 1996
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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?

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Integrating

• 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

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

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Odds ratios
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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

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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