Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The empirical association between schooling and economic success is one of the most secure findings in the social sciences. With rare exceptions, across societies and historical periods those with more schooling or particular types of schooling have held significant material advantages over those with less schooling. While not perfect, the empirical associations between schooling and economic success are high, persistent, and according to many accounts, increasing. Schooling in many societies is now generally regarded as the key to both individual and collective social mobility. Educational attainment is consistently associated with virtually every standard measure of socioeconomic success. For example, in the United States only a little more than three out of five individuals who have not completed high school are in the labor force. This number rises steadily as educational attainment rises, with nearly nine out of ten college graduates participating in the labor force. Similarly, as educational attainment goes up, unemployment rates unambiguously go down. This does not mean that providing high school dropouts with diplomas will suddenly provide adequate opportunities for them, but it does mean that when jobs are scarce, the least educated have the least access to them. The relationship between education and socioeconomic success goes beyond whether or not people are working, ... log in or subscribe to read full text