- credentialism
- the emphasis on certificates or degrees to show that a person has a certain skill, has attained a certain level of education, or has met certain job qualifications
- cultural capital
- cultural knowledge that serves (metaphorically) as currency to help one navigate a culture
- cultural transmission
- the way people come to learn the values, beliefs, and social norms of their culture
- education
- a social institution through which a society’s children are taught basic academic knowledge, learning skills, and cultural norms
- formal education
- the learning of academic facts and concepts
- grade inflation
- the idea that the achievement level associated with an A today is notably lower than the achievement level associated with A-level work a few decades ago
- Head Start program
- a federal program that provides academically focused preschool to students of low socioeconomic status
- hidden curriculum
- the type of nonacademic knowledge that people learn through informal learning and cultural transmission
- informal education
- education that involves learning about cultural values, norms, and expected behaviors through participation in a society
- No Child Left Behind Act
- an act that requires states to test students in prescribed grades, with the results of those tests determining eligibility to receive federal funding
- social placement
- the use of education to improve one’s social standing
- sorting
- classifying students based on academic merit or potential
- tracking
- a formalized sorting system that places students on “tracks” (advanced, low achievers) that perpetuate inequalities
- universal access
- the equal ability of all people to participate in an education system