TY - JOUR
T1 - How institutional context alters social reproduction dynamics
T2 - Ethnic track placement patterns in the U.S. and Germany
AU - Werum, Regina E.
AU - Davis, Tomeka
AU - Cheng, Simon
N1 - Funding Information:
We are equal authors, listed in reverse alphabetical order. This research was supported by grants to the first author: a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, the Spencer Foundation's Small Grants Program, and NSF grant # SES-9986586 . This material is partly based on work conducted while the first author served at the National Science Foundation. We thank our reviewers as well as Brian Powell for their feedback, Lauren Rauscher for her research assistance, and Martin Groeger, Radcliffe Quarterman, and Li-Ling Yang for their support.
PY - 2011/12
Y1 - 2011/12
N2 - How does institutional context shape the way family dynamics, especially ethnic background and parental resources, affect track placement? We contrast the track placement patterns of immigrants and ethnic majority students in two countries marked by drastic differences in the social organization of schooling. Drawing on German (GSOEP) and U.S. (NELS) data, we find that, in general, more family resources pull students from lower to higher tracks, but ethnic inequalities in these resources favor the ethnic majority groups in both countries. In addition, institutional context conditions which parental resources shape educational outcomes, and how they do so. We find that the effects of parental ties exacerbate ethnic inequalities between whites and Latinos in the U.S. whereas in Germany, parents' community ties play a compensatory role for immigrants, who benefit from interactions with secular and ethno-religious groups. Our findings confirm previous cross-national research, but they also highlight the need to elaborate the relationship between institutional context and ethnically specific reproduction mechanisms within countries.
AB - How does institutional context shape the way family dynamics, especially ethnic background and parental resources, affect track placement? We contrast the track placement patterns of immigrants and ethnic majority students in two countries marked by drastic differences in the social organization of schooling. Drawing on German (GSOEP) and U.S. (NELS) data, we find that, in general, more family resources pull students from lower to higher tracks, but ethnic inequalities in these resources favor the ethnic majority groups in both countries. In addition, institutional context conditions which parental resources shape educational outcomes, and how they do so. We find that the effects of parental ties exacerbate ethnic inequalities between whites and Latinos in the U.S. whereas in Germany, parents' community ties play a compensatory role for immigrants, who benefit from interactions with secular and ethno-religious groups. Our findings confirm previous cross-national research, but they also highlight the need to elaborate the relationship between institutional context and ethnically specific reproduction mechanisms within countries.
KW - Comparative
KW - Ethnicity
KW - Germany
KW - Resources
KW - Tracking
KW - United States
KW - Weak ties
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U2 - 10.1016/j.rssm.2011.04.002
DO - 10.1016/j.rssm.2011.04.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:80555155971
VL - 29
SP - 371
EP - 391
JO - Research in Social Stratification and Mobility
JF - Research in Social Stratification and Mobility
SN - 0276-5624
IS - 4
ER -