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03-12-2013, 09:57 AM
I am sharing an interesting study finding on social mobility. Three (3) times more likely in Britain and Australia, six (6) times more likely in US. I wonder anyone has done similar study in Singapore...
Measuring the wealth effect on education
LONDON — While it may be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, it has long been thought easier for the rich man’s son or daughter to get into Harvard. Or Oxford.
But thanks to a new study by John Jerrim at the Institute of Education at the University of London, we now know how much easier.
At a time when governments on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean are increasingly facing questions about the widening gap between rich and poor, Dr Jerrim studied access to high-status universities in Britain, the United States and Australia.
“My background is economics, and if you look at the economics, kids that go to certain universities earn a premium on their wages during their working lives over and above the premium you get just by going to college,” Dr Jerrim said. In the US, that premium is about 6 per cent, he said. “The other reason for looking at these particular universities is that they seem to influence access to certain jobs and to act as a signal to high-flying graduate recruiters,” he said. “If you take the job of being prime minister of Britain, for example, you almost have to have gone to Oxford.”
Dr Jerrim found that students whose parents come from a professional or managerial background are three times as likely to enter a high-status university in Britain or Australia as students with working-class parents. For the sake of the study, a “high status” university in Britain was defined by membership in the Russell Group of large research institutions; in Australia the study looked at students attending the “Group of Eight” coalition of leading universities.
The same threefold advantage applied to students attending prestigious public universities in the US — those described as “highly selective” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which rates schools based on the test scores of incoming students.
At elite private American universities, moreover, students are six times as likely to come from a professional as a poor or working-class background, Dr Jerrim found.
Dr Jerrim said he was surprised to discover a considerable gap in access to selective colleges and universities even after accounting for differences in academic performance as measured by grades or standardised tests.
“When you take academic achievement into account, you can explain some of the difference, but not all of them,” said Dr Jerrim.
“What this means is that there are significant numbers of working-class children who, even though they have the academic credentials to be admitted to elite colleges, are either not being admitted or choosing not to apply.”
Dr Jerrim’s report was published by the Sutton Trust, a British educational charity that focuses on social mobility. “What John has shown is that if you look at academic achievement, there should be far more kids from lower income backgrounds going to top universities,” said Sutton Trust Chairman Peter Lampl. “Here in Britain, there should be another 3,000 going. And the main reason they aren’t is that they just don’t apply”.
While many British universities rely solely on test scores and grades, both Oxford and Cambridge interview candidates, and the interviews are often rigorous — a form of oral examination. “At private schools they practice endlessly for these things. Students at state schools haven’t had that preparation — and in many cases they just don’t want to put themselves through it,” Mr Lampl said, adding that such students “also worry that even if they do get in they won’t fit in”.
Asked about the policy implications of his research, Dr Jerrim called for a twin-track approach.
“The main focus for governments should be on improving achievement for poorer students,” he said.
“But the fact that there is still this gap suggests that there are also measures that schools and universities can take, such as identifying qualified students and encouraging them to raise their aspirations, and using contextual information to give students from disadvantaged backgrounds a fair chance.” THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.todayonline.com/daily-focus/e...epage=true
Measuring the wealth effect on education
LONDON — While it may be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, it has long been thought easier for the rich man’s son or daughter to get into Harvard. Or Oxford.
But thanks to a new study by John Jerrim at the Institute of Education at the University of London, we now know how much easier.
At a time when governments on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean are increasingly facing questions about the widening gap between rich and poor, Dr Jerrim studied access to high-status universities in Britain, the United States and Australia.
“My background is economics, and if you look at the economics, kids that go to certain universities earn a premium on their wages during their working lives over and above the premium you get just by going to college,” Dr Jerrim said. In the US, that premium is about 6 per cent, he said. “The other reason for looking at these particular universities is that they seem to influence access to certain jobs and to act as a signal to high-flying graduate recruiters,” he said. “If you take the job of being prime minister of Britain, for example, you almost have to have gone to Oxford.”
Dr Jerrim found that students whose parents come from a professional or managerial background are three times as likely to enter a high-status university in Britain or Australia as students with working-class parents. For the sake of the study, a “high status” university in Britain was defined by membership in the Russell Group of large research institutions; in Australia the study looked at students attending the “Group of Eight” coalition of leading universities.
The same threefold advantage applied to students attending prestigious public universities in the US — those described as “highly selective” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which rates schools based on the test scores of incoming students.
At elite private American universities, moreover, students are six times as likely to come from a professional as a poor or working-class background, Dr Jerrim found.
Dr Jerrim said he was surprised to discover a considerable gap in access to selective colleges and universities even after accounting for differences in academic performance as measured by grades or standardised tests.
“When you take academic achievement into account, you can explain some of the difference, but not all of them,” said Dr Jerrim.
“What this means is that there are significant numbers of working-class children who, even though they have the academic credentials to be admitted to elite colleges, are either not being admitted or choosing not to apply.”
Dr Jerrim’s report was published by the Sutton Trust, a British educational charity that focuses on social mobility. “What John has shown is that if you look at academic achievement, there should be far more kids from lower income backgrounds going to top universities,” said Sutton Trust Chairman Peter Lampl. “Here in Britain, there should be another 3,000 going. And the main reason they aren’t is that they just don’t apply”.
While many British universities rely solely on test scores and grades, both Oxford and Cambridge interview candidates, and the interviews are often rigorous — a form of oral examination. “At private schools they practice endlessly for these things. Students at state schools haven’t had that preparation — and in many cases they just don’t want to put themselves through it,” Mr Lampl said, adding that such students “also worry that even if they do get in they won’t fit in”.
Asked about the policy implications of his research, Dr Jerrim called for a twin-track approach.
“The main focus for governments should be on improving achievement for poorer students,” he said.
“But the fact that there is still this gap suggests that there are also measures that schools and universities can take, such as identifying qualified students and encouraging them to raise their aspirations, and using contextual information to give students from disadvantaged backgrounds a fair chance.” THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.todayonline.com/daily-focus/e...epage=true
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