Chapter 5: The Structural Transformation of Schooling: Stratification, Accommodation, Competition

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Chapter 5 The Structural Transformation of
Schooling Stratification, Accommodation,
Competition

• Learning Objectives
• To understand how to think structurally and to
  consider the broad organization of school
  systems.
• To take a comparative approach to education,
  examining how Canadian schooling has changed over
  time and how it compares to schooling in other
  nations.
• To identify links between the different
  organizations of school systems and different
  forms of status competition and inequality across
  societies.

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Chapter 5 The Structural Transformation of
Schooling

• An increasingly powerful bond between education
  and the allocation of scarce and desirable
  high-status positions stirs conflict and
  controversy.
• Sociologists of education study how this conflict
  is shaped by examining the different ways school
  systems are organized.
• The past half-century has brought a sea change in
  thinking about education
• In North America especially, higher education has
  been regarded as not only suitable but necessary
  for larger and larger reaches of people.

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Chapter 5 The Structural Transformation of
Schooling

• A higher education for all ethos and a
  revolution of expectations
• Leading some to envision an imminent evolution
  from mass to universal post-secondary systems
• Davies Guppy identify two cross-cutting
  pressures
• an increasing competitiveness to enter
  post-secondary levels
• ever-widening ways in which K12 schools
  accommodate students.

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Chapter 5 The Structural Transformation of
Schooling

• The impact of these trends has been to make
  schools less stratified at the secondary level
  but more stratified at the post-secondary level.
• The destratifying of secondary schools is
  moving the sorting and selecting role of
  education from secondary to post-secondary levels.

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Chapter 5 Stratification

• One of the fundamental roles performed by schools
  is social selectionassigning badges of ability
• The channelling of students into different types
  of schools and programs is based on a belief that
  not all students can benefit from the same
  curriculum.
• Creates stratification when programs are
  structured to be higher or lower and then
  linked to opportunities in job markets.
• Known as streaming in Canada tracking in
  the United States the splitting students into
  ability groups

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Chapter 5 Stratification

• Whatever stream one follows - has consequences
  for ones future both in terms of post-secondary
  options and eventual labour market choices
• Curricula differ greatly between streams or
  strata as do expectations of students
• Are you a lumper or a splitter?
• Learning is enhanced by lumping people together
  (mixture of ability levels) or splitting people
  (finer ability groupings)
• A common school model or a highly stratified
  school model?

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Chapter 5 Stratification

• Major concern with streaming - the recurring
  pattern of reinforcing inequality of educational
  opportunity
• Youth from less advantaged backgrounds -
  over-represented in lower streams and
  under-represented in upper streams
• Some students from poorer families do enter
  academic streams (and vice versa), but the
  probability of doing so is much less for students
  from poorer as compared to wealthier backgrounds
• Sociologists have long condemned streaming for
  limiting the opportunities for many students

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Chapter 5 Stratification

• According to Sociologists, streaming serves to
• dampen the aspirations of these youth
• manage their ambitions
• discourage them from moving on
• to cool them out by assigning them badges of
  lesser ability

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Chapter 5 Stratification

• Differences between schools are minimal
• Two main reasons
• 1. most schools are structured in similar ways
  and most teaching is done in similar ways
• 2. the differences that do occur are largely a
  function of the different student populations in
  the school
• (social class or ethnicity reflecting mainly
  the school neighbourhood)

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Chapter 5 Stratification

• Streams have an effect on student achievement in
  writing performance
• The quality of material given to students to work
  with and the ways in which they work with it in
  their classes differ.
• Academic streams see more challenging literary
  material and do much more writing.
• Conversely, vocational streams both see and do
  less writing and are less proficient
• Self-fulfilling prophecy living up/down to
  expectations

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Chapter 5 Stratification

• Students differ from one another in their ability
• Individual variations in writing ability are a
  function of many factors
• Family backgrounds, ethnicity, mental ability,
  gender, and so forth
• The stream a student is in within a school has
  more of an effect on her/his writing achievements
  than does the school

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Chapter 5 Stratification

• In contrast to many European systems, (Britain,
  France, and Germany), Canadas system has been
  relatively open or lumpy
• European countries have historically channelled
  students by creating entire secondary schools
  that feature one or another stream - academic or
  vocational
• They have sorted students at relatively young
  ages
• Allocation of students is based on major national
  exams watershed events in a young persons life

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Chapter 5 Stratification

• Until recently, such stratification has been
  rigid
• once students entered one type of school, few
  shifted to another school type
• For those in vocational schools, opportunities
  for advancing to universities were essentially
  cut off.
• If a British, French, or Japanese student failed
  an examination at age 15 or 16, he or she was
  effectively eliminated from further higher
  education.
• A far greater proportion of youth entered
  Canadian universities than their European
  counterparts.

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Chapter 5 Stratification

• European academic secondary schooling has been
  historically tied to landowning and merchant
  classes
• Oriented to preparing elites through preserving
  an aristocratic heritage culture.
• Canadian schools have historically de-emphasized
  the cultivation of a high tradition
• The attitude has been that everyone was entitled
  and could benefit from education - not just a
  classics-loving intellectual elite
• Canadian schools have promoted practical
  curricula and have not equated excellence and
  quality with high culture

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Chapter 5 Stratification

• Europe - different types of schools award
  distinct credentials
• Credentials from vocational schools make a person
  ineligible for university admission - most lead
  to a specific job
• Canadian secondary schools offer the same general
  credentialthe high school diploma
• No matter which stream you meet the high school
  graduation requirements for your province
• Little of the content in Canadian secondary
  schools is directly job-related and the diploma
  lacks direct vocational meaning

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Chapter 5 Trends

• The trend, around the globe, is for universities
  and colleges to expand
• Accepting more and more students every year
• North Bay Nugget, January 22, 2007 Dr. David
  Foot, U. of T.
• Applicants for admission to the provinces
  universities in 2007 were up 5.2 over 2006 and
  11.7 over 2004
• Current enrolment is 40 higher that in 2000-2001

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Chapter 5 Trends

• Baby boom echo scrapping of Grade 13 in Ontario
  surge in students in 2003 Bubble of enrolment
• Predicts a student shortage as this group leaves
  the university and college settings
• Faculty problems
• Increased enrolment means more faculty
• 50 of full time faculty are 50 yrs.
• 15 are 60
• End of mandatory retirement (65 yr.) will help
• What to do with extra faculty when bubble goes
  through??

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Chapter 5 Trends

• Britain, for instance, recently reached a goal of
  having one-third of all 1819 year olds enrolled
  in higher education
• European higher education is now being modernized
  to create more young workers with high cognitive
  skills
• Influence of North American consultants -
  Michael Fullan, Willard Daggett???

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Chapter 5 Trends

• Europeans moving towards more open secondary
  structures
• Expanded higher education system - removing
  barriers at the secondary school level and
  creating more opportunities for youth to make the
  transition to post-secondary levels
• North America destreaming has encouraged more
  youth to enter academic streams
• Many analysts contend that streaming still exists
  in a less visible guise through course and
  program selection
• Most policy-makers want universities to expand

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Chapter 5 Trends

• At the same time this destratification is
  occurring, pressures for more accountability are
  growing
• E.g. the development of standardized tests and
  curricula
• Ontarios standardized tests in Grades 3, 6, and
  9, and mandatory literacy test for a secondary
  diploma
• Policy-makers are creating both higher standards
  and more access to higher education.
• They are simultaneously destratifying and
  standardizing schools.

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Chapter 5 Stratification within Post-Secondary
Education

• Higher education- stratified along two main
  dimensions
• selectivity of institution
• field of study
• Universities and colleges differ greatly in
  prestige - affects their ability to be highly
  selective
• They provide graduates access to elite jobs,
  higher wages, contacts, and other advantages

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Chapter 5 Stratification within Post-Secondary
Education

• United States - elaborate hierarchy
• Ivy League and other major private universities
  (e.g., Stanford, Duke)
• Large state universities
• Several thousand smaller colleges and
  universities many of which are specifically or
  nominally church-affiliated
• At the bottom, two-year community or junior
  colleges.
• What distinguishes the US system is its steep
  prestige hierarchy

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Chapter 5 Stratification within Post-Secondary
Education

• Canada
• Universities demand greater entrance
  requirements than do community colleges
• Universities are seen to be more academically
  intensive
• Community colleges vocational mandates for lower
  sectors of the job market - less lucrative for
  graduates

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Chapter 5 Stratification within Post-Secondary
Education

• Another dimension of stratification in higher
  education is field of study
• Fields differ greatly in their payoffs, with
  those closest to lucrative job markets,
  particularly in the professions, offering the
  greatest returns
• Fields vary greatly in their prestige, in their
  ability to be selective among their applicants,
  and in their ability to gain access to funds.

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Chapter 5 Stratification within Post-Secondary
Education

• Professional schools (medicine, law, engineering,
  and business schools), are very selective in
  admissions
• Offer their graduates substantial rates of
  return, above generalist fields in the
  humanities, social sciences, and many natural
  sciences
• Computer science and biotechnology fields, due to
  their links to commercial markets, are becoming
  powerful
• Some fields also remain segregated by gender
  (e.g., engineering, nursing), although this
  patterning has eased significantly

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Chapter 5 Stratification within Post-Secondary
Education

• US higher education is composed of highly unequal
  public and private institutions
• Famous Ivy League universities, elite four-year
  liberal arts colleges, and flagship public
  universities overshadow less renowned
  institutions
• This hierarchy is fairly well entrenched stable
  - movement up or down the top rungs is uncommon
• Over 3,500 public and private institutions
• The entrenched US system is important to employers

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Chapter 5 Stratification within Post-Secondary
Education

• Canadian higher education lacks both a steep
  institutional hierarchy and a private sector
• One major difference is a lack of a national
  market for undergraduate credentials
• Applications for universities are mainly at the
  local level
• Most have large commuter populations
• Few employers regard the name brand of a single
  Canadian university as being more valuable than
  others

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Chapter 5 Stratification within Post-Secondary
Education

• Tuition fee patterns and student expenditures
  provide indicators of the different national
  post-secondary structures
• Range of undergraduate tuition fees
• Canada - about 4,000
• US, differing by over 25,000 between highly
  ranked universities colleges versus
  lower-ranked institutions
• Operating expenditures range from the top to
  bottom by less than 4,000 in Canada, while the
  range in the US is several tens of thousands
• The norm for Canadian provinces to keep fees
  roughly equal across universities.

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Chapter 5 Stratification within Post-Secondary
Education

• This lack of a strong vertical Canadian hierarchy
  reflects the Canadian practice for
• maintaining equality among post-secondary
  institutions
• the more regional character of the Canadian job
  market
• the tendency of the Canadian upper class to opt
  for high-status British and US institutions,
  which has historically muted the demand to
  establish an elite Canadian university
• Canada may be developing a more elaborate
  hierarchy of higher education institutions

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Chapter 5 Stratification within Post-Secondary
Education

• As our universities and colleges need to generate
  more of their own revenue, (via large external
  research grants, corporate funds, alumni
  donations, or higher tuition fees), a steeper
  gradient is a likely result
• Older and larger research-intensive universities
  enjoy advantageous resources such as multiple
  professional schools, a core of wealthy alumni,
  and corporate contacts
• The will be able to run generously endowed
  academic programs, raise their admission
  requirements, and compete for the top students

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Chapter 5 Stratification within Post-Secondary
Education

• If wealthier institutions are perceived by
  students and employers to offer a superior
  education, it may bring an intensified pecking
  order to Canadian higher education
• What we may be seeing in Canada with increasing
  stratification by field of study at the
  post-secondary level is a migration of selection
  effects from high schools to colleges and
  universities.
• While the high schools are destreaming, they are
  experiencing new pressures to accommodate more
  and more to the needs of particular students.

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Chapter 5 THE ACCOMMODATING SCHOOL FROM
FACTORIES TO SHOPPING MALLS

• Criticisms of modern schools - they are overly
  bureaucratic, inhumane, and indifferent to the
  needs of students
• Viewpoint (1960s 1970s) - faulted schools for
  sacrificing youths authentic development in
  favour of preparing them for post-secondary
  studies or the job market
• Portrayed schools as resembling
  nineteenth-century industrial factories more
  than contemporary human services organizations
• Accused schools of valuing efficiency and
  profitability above human experience

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Chapter 5 THE ACCOMMODATING SCHOOL FROM
FACTORIES TO SHOPPING MALLS

• During 20th century, authorities turned from
  local forms of governance to more bureaucratized
  models the one best system model
• School officials interpreted their societal
  mandate for universal schooling as a mission to
  serve all students a broadly comparable education
• Standardize schools physical plants, teacher
  training, pedagogy, and curricula
• Organized hierarchies of authority classroom
  teachers, to the principal, to school boards, and
  to provincial departments or ministries of
  education.

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Chapter 5 THE ACCOMMODATING SCHOOL FROM
FACTORIES TO SHOPPING MALLS

• According critics - a one-size-fits-all style
  of education
• Using a factory conception of inputs and
  outputs that treats students like widgets,
  processes them with curricula and rules, and
  graduates them with cookie-cutter skills and
  dispositions
• Schools were indifferent to the idiosyncratic
  needs of individuals
• Authority and power are seen to be wielded in
  distant, bureaucratic hierarchies rather than
  through local communities

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Chapter 5 THE ACCOMMODATING SCHOOL FROM
FACTORIES TO SHOPPING MALLS

• This criticism informed a team of researchers who
  studied California schools in the mid-1980s
• Researchers came to a quite opposite conclusion
• Rather than still being like factories, schools
  had become like shopping malls!
• Schools had been transformed into human service
  organizations that strove to accommodate as many
  students as possible

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Chapter 5 THE ACCOMMODATING SCHOOL FROM
FACTORIES TO SHOPPING MALLS

• After World War II in North America - deemed that
  highly educated populaces were necessary for
  economic prosperity and for the individual
  development of the citizenry.
• Public high schools given the mandate to retain
  as many youth as possible for as many years as
  possible.
• Old paradigm had been sink or swim, the new
  mantra was success for all.
• New norm everyone should complete high school -
  those who did not were either deviant or
  represented a failure of the public system.

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Chapter 5 THE ACCOMMODATING SCHOOL FROM
FACTORIES TO SHOPPING MALLS

• Graduation rates became a standard metric on
  which the quality of schooling was judged
• Now high graduation rates were taken as a sign
  that you could educate.
• Many youth found academic work neither appealing
  nor absorbing
• A challenge for modern secondary schools was to
  accommodate a wider range of student aptitude,
  preparedness, ability, and motivation than any
  secondary school had ever faced

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Chapter 5 THE ACCOMMODATING SCHOOL FROM
FACTORIES TO SHOPPING MALLS

• Schools did so by becoming more mall-like
• Created courses - vertically differentiated by
  degree of difficulty and also horizontally
  differentiated to cater to student choice
• Offered electives, introducing business and
  family studies
• Schools also created specialty shops for
  students with different abilities gifted at
  the high end or beset with disadvantages at the
  low end e.g. english as a second language
  (ESL), for enrichment, and for specially able or
  vocational students
• Secondary schools introduced extracurricular
  activities (e.g., sports team, clubs) enticing
  students to feel part of a school community.

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Chapter 5 THE ACCOMMODATING SCHOOL FROM
FACTORIES TO SHOPPING MALLS

• Schools offered more services than before to
  address a wide variety of social, physical, and
  emotional problems
• Educators became sensitized to recognize
  different kinds of learning styles, as proclaimed
  by theories of multiple intelligences
• The shopping-mall high school embraced a new
  credo that still encouraged ambitious students to
  thrive, but also eased the expectation for many
  other youth.
• Effectively reintroducing streaming or tracking -
  now with students actively choosing paths via
  course selections that are consequential for
  their own destinies

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Chapter 5 THE ACCOMMODATING SCHOOL FROM
FACTORIES TO SHOPPING MALLS

• Mastery no longer expected from all passing
  students
• Aspiring students could still find an enriched
  curricula
• Low-achieving students could pass from grade to
  grade in return for little more than orderly
  attendance
• Unofficially designated some courses to be easier
  than required math and science courses
• The purpose of electives was to accommodate
  students, not to promote academic rigour and
  excellence

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Chapter 5 THE ACCOMMODATING SCHOOL FROM
FACTORIES TO SHOPPING MALLS

• The mall analogy signified how secondary
  schools changed to become more consumer-oriented,
  more focused on offering choices and satisfying
  customers
• However, over the past decade the pendulum has
  swung again and schools have become less
  mall-like
• Policy-makers have tempered the emphasis on
  accommodating students with new concerns of
  raising standards and being accountable
• As more youth aim to go to university, students
  are grade-conscious, and in many respects
  schooling is more competitive than before

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Chapter 5 COMPETITION THE RACE TO UNIVERSITY

• As colleges and universities face unprecedented
  numbers of applicants, competition for spots has
  become increasingly keen
• In Canada, required high school grades have
  steadily risen over the past decade.
• Canadian universities are boosting their entrance
  standards and tuition fees - admitting top
  students - rejecting large numbers of qualified
  students
• In the United States, admissions standards to
  enter top American colleges and universities have
  risen steadily in the past decade

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Chapter 5 COMPETITION THE RACE TO UNIVERSITY

• Universities and colleges are sorting these
  larger masses for vastly different occupational
  and social opportunities
• They now supply workers for a larger portion of
  the economy than ever before
• These rising demands for higher education
  generate a certain form of competition
• Some segments of post-secondary education adapt
  by accommodating non-traditional students, others
  become more exclusive

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Chapter 5 COMPETITION THE RACE TO UNIVERSITY

• The American hierarchy of universities and
  colleges has sparked an intensified form of
  competition among students
• Prestigious universities raise both their
  admission standards and tuition fees to
  ever-higher levels, at the same time offering
  more merit scholarships to attract star students
• Top-ranked American students are increasingly
  competing against one another on a more national
  scale
• This race to the top has been buoyed by a
  growing perception that choosing the right
  college is increasingly a pivotal career
  investment

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Chapter 5 COMPETITION THE RACE TO UNIVERSITY

• Perceptions are whetted by a growing
  mini-industry of published rankings
• Spawned a plethora of high school-based
  strategies to enter prestigious universities and
  colleges
• In Canada this is reflect with publications
  like the Globe Mail and MacLean's.