Social Class Origin and Academic Success Revisited.

In American society most chances for upward social mobility are connected to some aspect of education, specifically, higher education. Some occupations, moreover, may not be achieved without an advanced degree such as the occupations of lawyer or medical doctor. The academic profession is also a "high education" occupation, and especially since about 1950, most institutions offering the baccalaureate and higher degrees campaigned to increase the percentage of their faculty holding the doctorate. One concern in the sociology of education is the connection between education and social structure. Much of this literature has dealt with the effects of social class on schooling. One important question is whether or not the effects of social class continue to haunt people after they go through the educational system and end up with the highest degree possible. In this paper authors of this article revisit social scientist Diana Crane's data and use an appropriate statistic to examine her data and to reevaluate her hypotheses.