Maureen T. Hallinan - Böcker

Variations 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 sectors. School Sector and Student Outcomes offers such an assessment. By presenting a set of methodologically rigorous empirical studies, the volume provides a viable basis for comparisons across sectors on such issues as school organization, governance, curriculum, and pedagogy in U.S. elementary and secondary schools. Carefully reasoned conceptual analyses identify the source of sector differences, trace the evolution of the dual school system in the U.S., and describe the mechanisms that link school sector to school processes. The volume amply documents how sector differences operate and what the consequences are for student learning and behavior.Of intrinsic interest to administrators and scholars in education and the sociology of education, this volume should stimulate new research and help educators improve both public and private schools.

Variations 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 sectors. School Sector and Student Outcomes offers such an assessment. By presenting a set of methodologically rigorous empirical studies, the volume provides a viable basis for comparisons across sectors on such issues as school organization, governance, curriculum, and pedagogy in U.S. elementary and secondary schools. Carefully reasoned conceptual analyses identify the source of sector differences, trace the evolution of the dual school system in the U.S., and describe the mechanisms that link school sector to school processes. The volume amply documents how sector differences operate and what the consequences are for student learning and behavior.Of intrinsic interest to administrators and scholars in education and the sociology of education, this volume should stimulate new research and help educators improve both public and private schools.

Opportunities for Learning brings together the works of one of the most highly regarded past presidents of the American Sociological Association, focusing on uncovering and addressing educational inequities in elementary and secondary schools.Few sociologists of education can rival the depth and breadth of Maureen T. Hallinan's contributions to the field. This book compiles her writings, some of which have never been published before, to bring the full insight of both her sociological imagination and her theoretical and empirical research. Through articles, book chapters, and invited lectures, Hallinan explores the interplay among theory, research, and policy. Other pieces focus on the importance of opportunities to learn, peer friendships, and ability grouping for instruction. She writes in depth about various attempts of educational reform and the effects of Catholic schools. Hallinan sought to address the enduring problems of sociological theorizing and research within education, and her writings contribute important insights and provide foundations for the next generation of social scientists.This collection demonstrates Hallinan's keen ability to communicate balanced inquiry by engaging multiple perspectives in her theoretical framework coupled with strong empirical testing of the relationships.

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 conceptualizations of the school­ ing process and provide theoretical models to guide future empirical work on schools. A unique feature of this book is its heavy emphasis on theory. Each chapter presents a theoretical model or argument concerning an issue of central importance in sociology of edu­ cation. The empirical analyses and simulations that are included are often more for illustrative purposes than for rigorous hypothesis testing, and some chapters have no data analysis at all. The major strength of the volume, therefore, lies in the new conceptualizations and reconceptualizations it provides of fundamental processes relating school organization to student learning. Theoretical work such as this is exactly what is needed in an area that has traditionally been, for the most part, empir­ ical and atheoretical. Another important feature of this volume is the various approaches it presents to the study of school organization.

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.

This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the field of education as viewed from a sociological perspective. Experts in the area present theoretical and empirical research on major educational issues and analyze the social processes that govern schooling, and the role of schools in and their impact on contemporary society. It should be useful for social scientists who want an overview of the field, graduate students, and educators.

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.

Robert Dreeben is one of the most widely read and influential sociologists of education of the past half-century and the author of several important books, one of which (the 1968 classic On What Is Learned in School) has been republished by Percheron Press. In this volume inspired by Dreeben’s work and career, chapters written by Dreeben’s colleagues, students, and even one of his mentors present the latest academic research on schools and schooling and examine recent and ongoing school reform policies. The contributors address schooling and socialization, school organization and effects, teaching as an occupation, and other areas of sociology of education where Dreeben’s research has had a profound impact. A concluding chapter by Dreeben discusses the field of sociology of education as a whole.

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. The chapters focus on how these institutions adapt to societal change and what the outcomes of these changes are.

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 conceptualizations of the school­ ing process and provide theoretical models to guide future empirical work on schools. A unique feature of this book is its heavy emphasis on theory. Each chapter presents a theoretical model or argument concerning an issue of central importance in sociology of edu­ cation. The empirical analyses and simulations that are included are often more for illustrative purposes than for rigorous hypothesis testing, and some chapters have no data analysis at all. The major strength of the volume, therefore, lies in the new conceptualizations and reconceptualizations it provides of fundamental processes relating school organization to student learning. Theoretical work such as this is exactly what is needed in an area that has traditionally been, for the most part, empir­ ical and atheoretical. Another important feature of this volume is the various approaches it presents to the study of school organization.

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.

Scholarly analysis in the sociology of education has burgeoned in recent decades. Frontiers in Sociology of Education aims to provide a roadmap for sociologists and other social scientists as they set bold new directions for future research on schools.  In Part 1 of this forward-looking volume, the authors present cutting-edge research to set  new guidelines for the sociological analysis of schools. In Part 2, notable social scientists, historians, administrators and educators provide a wide-ranging array of perspectives on contemporary education to insure that scholars make creative and broadly informed contributions to the sociological analysis of schools. The contributors to this volume examine events currently influencing education including: globalization, expansion of educational access, the changing significance of religion, new family structures, and curriculum reform.  Frontiers in Sociology of Education offers an innovative collection of research and ideas aimed at inspiring new analyses of schools better linked to changing societal conditions.