Children, schools, and inequality

Children, Schools, and Inequality examines elementary school outcomes (e.g., test scores, grades, and retention rates) in light of the socioeconomic variation in schools and neighborhoods, the organizational patterns across elementary schools, and the ways in which family structure intersects with children's school performance. Adding data from the Baltimore Beginning School Study to information culled from the fields of sociology, child development, and education, this book suggests why the gap between the school achievement of poor children and those who are better off has been so difficult to close. Doris Entwisle, Karl Alexander and Linda Steffel Olson show why the first-grade transition - how children negotiate entry into full-time schooling - is a crucial period.