Peers have a paradoxical influence on each other's educational decisions. On one hand, students are prone to conform to each other's ambitious educational decisions and, on the other hand, are discouraged from ambitious decisions when surrounded by successful peers. In this study I examine how peers influence each other's decision to apply to an…

One reason reform does not dramatically change public schools is because instructional practices are highly institutionalized. This article advances a theory for how teacher agency can both change and maintain institutionalized instructional practices in schools. Based on findings from one U.S. urban public school undergoing state-mandated reform,…

Prior work has proposed different theoretical mechanisms to explain students' course-taking patterns in schools. On the one hand, there are oversocialized accounts that claim that rules, social background factors, and supply-side factors shape observed career patterns. On the other hand, there are undersocialized accounts that claim that the…

The study of language in the social context of schooling is worthwhile because it contributes to (1) an understanding of the role of language in education, (2) an understanding of the role of schooling in social stratification, and (3) sociological theory more generally, by revealing issues for analysis. (Author/RM)

Summarizes a study that reveals that light-skin-toned and European-looking Mexican Americans receive about 1.5 more years of schooling that darker and more Indian-looking Mexican Americans. Differences in schooling by phenotype persisted with and without controls for other factors. Includes tables of statistical data. (MJP)

Examines the link between racial inequality in schooling and differences in cultural capital, parents' socialization of their children into high-status culture. Reveals an interconnection between the integration of blacks into high-status culture and the black-white convergence in schooling. Suggests cultural capital possesses potential for upward…