The document discusses the relationship between social class and school success. It finds that students from higher social classes tend to perform better in school than those from lower social classes. This is due to differences in home and family environments, as well as obstacles some students face in the classroom. While schools aim to equalize opportunity, research shows family background has a strong influence on achievement and many disadvantages are not overcome. The document examines factors like parental education, home resources, and teacher perceptions that can affect student performance.

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Western University
Where quality come first!
Department of English
Lecturer: Mr. SOEUNG SOPHA
Group 2: 1. Chhit Seyha
2. Seng Saksreyney
3. Norng Chanmoninich
ACADEMIC YEAR: 2012 & 2013

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Chapter11: Social Class, Race,
and SchoolAchievement
After we finish this chapter we will know:
 Social Class and Success in School.
 Race, Ethnicity, and School Success.
 Reason for Low Achievement among
Low-Status Students.
 Do Schools equalize opportunity?

3. Focus Question
 What is the relationship between social class and success
in the educational system?
 How do environment and heredity affect low achievement
level?
 What are the major reasons for low achievement among
students with low socioeconomic status?
 What roles do home family environment play in
encouraging or discouraging high achievement?
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4. Social Class and Success in school
American Society is generally understood to consist of
three broad class:
Upper Class
Middle Class
Working Class
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Cambodia Social Class
Elite group (upper Class)
Middle Class
Lower Class

6. Categories of Social Class
W. Lloyd Warner and his colleagues used four main
variables – occupation, education, income, and housing
value – classify five groups:
1. Upper Class : wealthy persons.
2. Upper middle Class : Professionals, managers, small
business owners.
3. Lower middle Class: Technical workers, technicians, sales
personnel, and clerical workers.
4. Upper lower Class : Skilled crafts workers.
5. Lower lower Class : Unskilled manual workers.
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7. Research on Social Class and School
Success
Table 11.1 Percentages of Eighth Graders Performing at or
above Proficient levels
Mathematics Reading
Parental Education
Not graduated high school 9 13
Graduated high school 17 20
Some education after high
school
28 33
Graduated college 40 43
Type of community
Central City 24 27
Urban fringe/ large town 32 36
Rural/small town 29 32
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Cambodian students participate
school as percentage
< 6 6-14 15-19 20-24 25+
28.91% 80.19% 51.83% 14.37% 1.20%

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Cambodian students as percentage in
schooling
Years Literacy (ages14-15) as % Survival grades (1-9 ) as % Girls & Boys (grade 10-
12) in %
1999 82
2001 33 48
2005 83.4 29.3 59.9
2015 Goal 100 Goal 100 Goal 100

10. Social Class, College Participation, and
National Problem
 Social Class: is associated with many educational outcomes in
reading, math, and other subjects.
 College Participation: Working-class students have low
achievement scores than middle- class students to
complete high school or to enroll in and complete
college.
 National Problem: About 25% of high-school graduates from the
lowest two socioeconomic quartiles enter college
and attain a postsecondary degree, compared with
more than 80% of high-school graduates in the
highest quartile.
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11. Race, Ethnicity, and School Success
 Race : Identifies groups of people with common ancestry
and physical characteristic.
 Ethnicity : Identifies people who have a shared culture,
member of an ethnic group usually have common
ancestry and share language, religion, and other
culture trait.
 School success: Status of minority groups, Eighth-grade
samples, Gain by minorities, Dropout rates, and
College attendance.
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12. Figure 11.1: Indicators of School Performance and Socioeconomic
Background, by Racial and Ethnic group
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13. The social problem of Minority
Status plus Urban Poverty
1. The African American population of the United States has
become more economically polarized.
2. Social institution such as family, the school, and the law
enforcement system often appear to have collapse in the inner
city.
3. The concentration of low-income minority populations in big-
city poverty areas has increase their isolation from the larger
city.
4. The problems experience by young black males have escalated
enormously.
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14. Comparing the Influence of Social
Class and Ethnicity
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 Working-Class white students as a group low achievement and
college attainment, whereas middle-class minority students, as a
group, rank relatively high on these variables.
 Minority of working-class and underclass, their children
remain much less successful in the educational system than are
the children of the middle-class.

15. Reasons for Low Achievement
among Low-Status Students
• Over the past forty years, much research has
been aimed at understanding and finding out the
reasons for low-achieving students from working-
class and poor families. And groups them under
•3 major factors:
I. Home environment
II. Heredity versus environment
III. Obstacles in classroom
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17. I. Home Environment
The previous chapter has pointed out that:
“Children’s families are the most important agent in
their early socialization and education.”
Many working-class students grow up in homes that
 fail to prepare them well for school.
3 key sets of characteristics important to their school
achievement:
1) Knowledge and
understanding
3) Values and
attitudes
2) Cognitive and
Verbal skills
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18. Wide knowledge of the world outside the home
through access to books and cultural institutions (for
example, museums), parental teaching, and
exploration of diverse environment.
That are helpful for children when they are enter
school.
1) Knowledgeand understanding
But Working-class
children are less likely
to acquired it than
Middle-class children
So, Lacking of
these things may
limit understanding
needed at school..!
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19. Cognitive( thinking ) and Verbal( speaking) Skills.
That both Middle- and Working-class children
develop them with “ordinary” or “restricted”
language .
2) Cognitiveand Verbal Skills
But Middle-class children are superior in the use of
“formal” or “elaborated” language.
So, “Restricted” or “Ordinary” language
does not help prepare poor children for
school..!
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20. In many working-class homes ill-prepare children to
function independently in the school .
Middle-class families tend to stress independent
learning and self-directed thinking by:
3) Valuesand Attitudes
Stimulation by
home environment
Early cognitive
development
Early brain
development
So, “ Focus on Control” does not encourage higher-
order thinking or independent problem-solving skills
needed at school...!
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21. II. Heredity - vs - Environment
“ Heredity”- refers to the characteristics are given from
parents’ genes.
“ Environment” – refers to surroundings or conditions
you live in.
Q: Which one cause the lower scores on intelligence tests
of children ?
1) Heredity? 3) Both?2) Environment?
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22. A: Working-classchildrenaverage lower scores on
intelligence tests may be relatedto environment or
heredity,or both.
Debate over why scores are low includes at
least three views:
1) Hereditarian: differences in intellectual capacity are
inborn,affected little by environment.
2) Environmentalist:family, school,and culture
environmentare major factors in determining IQ
test performance.
3) Synthesis:both environment and heredity
contributeto IQ and schoolperformance.
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23. So, Teachers and Parents should provide the
best possible environment for each child to
make the most of their inherited abilities.
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24. II. Obstacles in the Classroom
We have noted that the home and family environment
of many working-class student lacks the kind of
educational stimulation needed to prepare students
for success in the classroom.
! However, certain school and classroom dynamics
also cause these low achievements.
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25. List of the most classroomobstacles:
1. Inappropriate curriculum and instruction
2. Lack of previous success in school
3. Ineffective fixation on low-level learning
4. Difficult teaching conditions in working-class schools
5. Teacher perceptions of student inadequacies
6. Ineffective homogeneous grouping
7. Delivery-of-service problems
8. Overly large classes
9. Lack of teacher preparation and experience
10. Negative peer pressure
11. Differences between teacher and student backgrounds
12. Incompatibility between classroom expectations and students’
behavioral patterns/ learning styles
13. Accumulating effects of information-poor homes and
neighborhoods
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Do Schools Equalize Opportunity?
The research discussed in the
preceding section indicates that
disproportionate number of
student from low-income
background enter school poorly
prepared to succeed in traditional
classrooms and in
later years rank relatively low in
school achievement and in other
indicators of success.

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Coleman’s study: Equal educational opportunity has
received considerable attention since the1966 publication of a
massive national study conducted by James Coleman and his
colleagues .
Influence of school spending versus social class:
As expected ,they report that achievement related
strongly to student’s socioeconomic background and
that school with high proportions of working-class
,and underclass student generally received less
funding than did middle-class school.
* Student’s personal socioeconomic background.
*The social class status of other students in the
school.

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 Jencks’s conclusions:
• 1 School achievement depend s substantially on
student ‘s family characteristics.
• 2 Family background accounts for nearly half the
variation in occupational status and up to 35 %of the
variation in earning.
• 3 The school accomplish relatively little in terms of
reducing the achievement gap between student with
higher and lower socioeconomic.

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International parallels: The scholars at the
world bank after reviewing several decades of
international research, report that family
background has an “early and apparently
lasting influence "on achievement.
 Significant socioeconomic: Student with
low socioecomic status tend to perform poorly
in school and later have restricted employment
opportunities, a substantial proportion of
working class child and some from families
living in poverty do eventually attain middle
class status.

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 Role of education :has help many people
surpass their parent's status
 College as the dividing line: Education
increasingly determines socioeconomic status
and mobility ,college attendance and
graduation constitute a kind of diving line
between those likely to attain high socioeconomic
status and those not.
 Continuing disadvantages of underclass:
The success of many working-class student
opportunity educational social and economic
are

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Traditional versus Revisionist Interpretation
Opposite view of U.S schools:
• The revisionist view of schools, in contrast
holds that the school fail to provide most
disadvantage student with a meaning chance
to succeed in society.
• Critical theory or critical pedagogy
used as synonyms for the revisionist view. The
following sections explore the ramifications of
these two arguments.

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The Traditional View is the relationship among
social class educational achievement ,and economic
success ,but they emphasize existing opportunities and
data including many working-class youth do experience
social mobility through school and other institutions.
The Revisionist View and Critical Pedagogy
Education as maintaining elite dominate: revisionist
content that elite group control the school and thus
channel disadvantaged student :
1 Second rate: Secondary school and programs
2 Third-rate: community colleges
3 Fourth-rate: jobs

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• Why students resist: Much analysis in critical
pedagogy has been referred to as
resistance theory, which attempts to
explain why some students with low
socioeconomic status refuse to conform to
school expectations or to comply with
teacher ‘’s demands.
• What teacher should do: Using a variety of
related terms such as critical discourse
,engagement, and critical literacy.

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An intermediate Viewpoint
This chapter provide data indicating that
working class students as a group under
perform middle-class students.
School’s failures versus success :not all
working class students and minority student
fail in the school and not all middle class
student succeed.
Lowest class position are most frozen:
On status mobility in the United Sates indicates that people
at the bottom level mostly tend to freeze into parents
status.

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Minorities and concentrated poverty:
Social and demographic trend have concentrated
many child in low-income urban and rural communities
in school extremely low on achievement measures.

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