Abstract
The intersection of educational attainment and social class is well studied, but often from either a descriptive stance (yes, there is inequality by class) or from a single perspective (students from the working class do not attain the same levels of education as students from the middle and upper classes). Determined to Succeed? however, not only identifies the sweeping phenomenon of educational inequality by class, it also seeks to untangle the combined factors of (1) academic performance and (2) educational choice on the inequality of educational opportunity in an effort to speak directly to the need for focused and refreshed educational intervention should countries wish to see decreasing levels of inequality in the future.
To say that I could keep track of every methodological nuance introduced in Michelle Jackson’s book would be wishful thinking, but to say that it is a clear, well organized, and insightful volume is nothing less than the truth. If only to use as an abridged explanation of the public school systems across Europe and the United States, this book is a worthwhile investment. The edited volume offers a chapter on each of the following eight countries: Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, England, and the United States. After valiant attempts to explain the ins and outs of each country’s public educational system, each chapter takes on the momentous task of deconstructing contributing factors to socio-economic inequality in the educational attainment of a particular country. Though results are mixed, the message is clear: (1) academic performance and (2) educational choices, both strongly related to class, are each vital components of ongoing educational inequality. Further, the authors agree that educational policy and intervention must happen early in students’ educational careers if we are to hope for any substantial change to the current state of inequality.
In each of the eight studied countries, the authors quantitatively model the impact of “primary effects” (academic performance) and “secondary effects” (educational choice) on educational stratification. The skillful editing of Jackson is evident in the consistency of language, variables, and structure across the chapters. This consistency allows for ease of comparison among countries and outcomes which is quite a feat considering the complexity and variety of educational structures addressed. Although the relative impact of secondary effects varies from country to country, the importance of both primary and secondary effects is well noted in each chapter. The whole of this book makes a compelling argument for future scholars’ more sophisticated approaches to the study of educational inequality along class lines.
After a compelling introduction of the setting of the Inequality of Educational Opportunity [IEO] and a methodological chapter that has a place in any class on advanced statistics, the book offers stand-alone studies on each country. Each of these chapters differs from the others in large part as a result of the accessibility of data in each of the countries. In the concluding chapter, Jackson and Jan Jonsson offer a consolidated explanation for the differences in data among the countries. However, the great variety of data—in terms of sources, numbers, dates, and collection method—compromises the extent to which the findings are comparable across countries. For instance, Anders Holm and Mads Jaeger rely on panel data on cohorts from the 1950s and 1980s to analyze educational inequality in Denmark while Martin Neugebauer, David Reimer, Steffen Schindler and Volker Stocké use cross-sectional data on cohorts from the 1990s to analyze the German situation. Given this, I believe that the book should be taken as a wonderful introduction to the interrelated issues of primary and secondary effects, not as a final say on European and American educational inequality.
Perhaps the most impressive chapter is the one in which Frida Rudolphi investigates the state of educational inequality in Sweden. This is, in no small part, due to the fact that the Swedish data “includes yearly information on all pupils in the ninth, and final, grade of compulsory school from 1988 onward” (p. 195). This comprehensive data allowed Rudolphi to map the steadily decreasing inequality over time which she attributes to decreasing secondary effects: net of academic performance, students from various social backgrounds are making increasingly similar educational choices.
For another reason, I appreciated Mathieu Ichou and Louis-André Vallet’s chapter on France because it was the only chapter to consider both gender and ethnicity as factors contributing to educational inequality. Indeed, the authors had noteworthy findings related to both gender and ethnicity. Specifically, over time, the relationship between gender and secondary effects has shifted: previously, males transitioned into upper-level education at higher rates than females, but that is no longer the case in much of the academic structure. Also, recently, ethnic minorities transitioned at higher rates than children of non-immigrants. Especially considering the significant findings by Ichou and Vallet, the conspicuous omission of ethnicity (in the case of Denmark) or both ethnicity and gender (in all other chapters) left me with a feeling of unanswered questions.
Despite omissions that no doubt stemmed from the challenges associated with standardizing data from eight different countries, Determined to Succeed? is a book to be praised and widely read. If nothing else, I was left with a better understanding of the astonishing variation across countries’ educational systems and the astonishing similarity of the authors’ conclusions. The effects of social class manifest in academic performance and educational choices, which contribute to the past, current, and most likely future of educational inequality.