Background
Section 402 of the US Civil Rights Act of 1964 required a survey of unequal educational opportunity. James Coleman's team published Equality of Educational Opportunity in 1966.
Findings
- Differences in facilities between Black and white schools were smaller than expected.
- Achievement related more to family background than to school inputs.
- The social composition of fellow students mattered more than school resources.
- Students' sense of control over their environment was strongly linked to achievement.
Impact
Equality shifted from equal inputs to equal outcomes, informing desegregation and busing debates. Coleman later framed family and community ties as social capital (1988), and work such as the Plowden Report and Jencks's Inequality followed.
Critiques
Measurement limits of the input-output model and underestimated school effects spurred school effectiveness research; reproduction theory argued schools reproduce class inequality.
Korea
Gaps linked to parental income, private tutoring and region are addressed through education welfare priority support, basic skills programmes and school social work.
References
- Coleman, J. S., et al. (1966). Equality of Educational Opportunity. U.S. Government Printing Office.
- Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95-S120.
- Jencks, C., et al. (1972). Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America. Basic Books.
- Gamoran, A., & Long, D. A. (2007). Equality of educational opportunity: A 40 year retrospective. In R. Teese et al. (Eds.), International Studies in Educational Inequality, Theory and Policy (pp. 23-47). Springer.