Institutional Contexts for Socio-Economic Effects on Schooling Outcomes

In the field of stratification sociology, one of the most important developments of the past two decades has been an improved understanding of cross-national variations with regard to the role of education in society. The structure of educational systems differs in important respects between countries, affecting patterns of inequality. The central issue that will be addressed in this essay is to what extent educational institutional characteristics are related to the level of inequality of educational opportunity (IEO) in a country. IEO refers to the association between background variables, most notably social class origin and race/ethnicity, and schooling outcomes of children. These outcomes include the highest attained educational level, school continuation decisions during the educational career, and student test scores. Institutional characteristics that are discussed include early tracking, forms of standardization, the vocational orientation, and private schooling.