Differences in students' performance across different school sectors - specifically, public, private religious, and private nonreligious schools - has long been an important topic in the sociology of education. In recent years, debate over the merits of each sector has increased between advocates and critics of school choice, as exemplified by current struggles over educational vouchers and their ramifications for public policy and politics. What has been lacking in this debate, however, has been a theoretically grounded empirical analysis of the factors that affect student success across...

Restructuring Schools presents conceptual and empirical models of school organization for promoting students' achievement. Papers by nationally recognized educational sociologists examine four dimensions of the educational process-school organization and governance, organization of students for instruction, classroom processes, and school-to-work transitions-and suggest methods to increase the effectiveness of each. The volume also explores the innovative concept of output-driven education which redirects attention to student achievement as an outcome variable.

The aim of the Handbook of Sociology of Education is to present the most theoretically grounded and empirically rigorous sociological analyses of schools to date. The authors are distinguished researchers in the field. Their contributions to the Handbook offer major theoretical perspec tives on the schooling process and describe significant empirical studies of schools and their effects on individuals and society. The research presented in the Handbook is built on three fundamental tenets of sociol ogy. First, the authors adopt the perspective that schools are a central institution in...

The aim of the Handbook of Sociology of Education is to present the most theoretically grounded and empirically rigorous sociological analyses of schools to date. The authors are distinguished researchers in the field. Their contributions to the Handbook offer major theoretical perspec tives on the schooling process and describe significant empirical studies of schools and their effects on individuals and society. The research presented in the Handbook is built on three fundamental tenets of sociol ogy. First, the authors adopt the perspective that schools are a central institution in...

This volume addresses key issues in the sociology of education concerning how schools are organized for instruction and what processes link school organization and instruction to educa- tional achievement. The content of the chapters represents a shift in focus from traditional and even recent themes in soci- ology of education, including the study of school effects and of classroom processes, to a concern with the social organization of schools and its consequences for student outcomes. Rather than reviewing or evaluating existing research, the chapters present new and developing...

Scholarly analysis in the sociology of education has burgeoned in recent decades. In this forward-looking volume, the contributors examine cutting-edge research findings and techniques, to explore new directions in sociology of education research. Frontiers in Sociology aims to provide a roadmap for sociologists and other social scientists to undertake bold new directions in this field of study, making landmark contributions to the sociological study of schools. The contributors to this volume examine current phenomena with relation to education, including: globalization, expansion of...

In the second half of the twentieth century, a number of researchers have conceptualized modern society as a social system composed of differenti ated yet interrelated institutional spheres. Commonly identified institu tional spheres are the family, religion, the economy, the polity or state, medicine or health care, religion, law, and education. The institutional perspective has sometimes been linked to a structural-functional frame work; it has often been asserted that institutions must be understood as parts of a larger whole operating at the societal level. Equally important have been...

This volume addresses key issues in the sociology of education concerning how schools are organized for instruction and what processes link school organization and instruction to educa- tional achievement. The content of the chapters represents a shift in focus from traditional and even recent themes in soci- ology of education, including the study of school effects and of classroom processes, to a concern with the social organization of schools and its consequences for student outcomes. Rather than reviewing or evaluating existing research, the chapters present new and developing...