Coleman Report Review
Coleman Report Summary
The Coleman Report is known for Coleman’s research on education. Coleman was commissioned by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1966 to assess the availability of equal educational opportunities to children of different race, color, religion, and national origin. It was discovered that student background and socioeconomic status are much more important in determining educational outcomes than are measured differences in school resources. “The third and final Coleman Report, Public and Private Schools, came out in 1981. In what proved to be yet another controversial study, Coleman found that even after family background factors were controlled, private and Catholic schools provided a better education than public schools” (Kiviat, 2000). Smith (1972), in a review of the Coleman report focused on regression coefficients instead of percent of explained variance, came to similar conclusions about the lack of effect of school resources once family background is controlled (Hemmings, 2007).
Discussion
Children are influenced by what is in the home, peers and the communities around them. Looking at the home; who influences children more? The parents. Parents need to be involved with their children. This can be in the way of helping with homework, listening to a story read by the child or even asking the child how his or her day was.
Peers can influence a child in the same ways as home influences. Peer can “make or break” a child. If the peer is a positive influence and has positive values, the child s likely to pick up on the same attitude.
Community influences consist of schools, after school activities, and businesses. According to Coleman, “Catholic schools were more effective than public schools, that the effects were greatest among disadvantaged students, and that the effects of schools were due to (explained by) greater discipline and order in the schools as well as school policies such as tracking,
The Coleman Report is known for Coleman’s research on education. Coleman was commissioned by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1966 to assess the availability of equal educational opportunities to children of different race, color, religion, and national origin. It was discovered that student background and socioeconomic status are much more important in determining educational outcomes than are measured differences in school resources. “The third and final Coleman Report, Public and Private Schools, came out in 1981. In what proved to be yet another controversial study, Coleman found that even after family background factors were controlled, private and Catholic schools provided a better education than public schools” (Kiviat, 2000). Smith (1972), in a review of the Coleman report focused on regression coefficients instead of percent of explained variance, came to similar conclusions about the lack of effect of school resources once family background is controlled (Hemmings, 2007).
Discussion
Children are influenced by what is in the home, peers and the communities around them. Looking at the home; who influences children more? The parents. Parents need to be involved with their children. This can be in the way of helping with homework, listening to a story read by the child or even asking the child how his or her day was.
Peers can influence a child in the same ways as home influences. Peer can “make or break” a child. If the peer is a positive influence and has positive values, the child s likely to pick up on the same attitude.
Community influences consist of schools, after school activities, and businesses. According to Coleman, “Catholic schools were more effective than public schools, that the effects were greatest among disadvantaged students, and that the effects of schools were due to (explained by) greater discipline and order in the schools as well as school policies such as tracking,
References: (2008, June). About the office of Head Start. Retrieved January 24, 2009, from US Department of Health and Services: Administration for Children and Families Web site: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ohs/about/index.html#prog_desc Gamoran, A., & Long, D. A. (2006). Equality of Educational Opportunity: A 40-year retrospective (WCER Working Paper No. 2006-9). Madison: University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin Center for Education Research. Retrieved January 23, 2009, from http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/publications/workingPapers/papers.php. Hemmings, A. (2007). Seeing the Light: Cultural and Social Capital Productions in an Inner-city High School. The High School Journal, 90(3), 9-17. Retrieved January 22, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1240842231). Kiviat, B.J. (2000, April). The social side of schooling. John Hopkins Magazine, Retrieved January 23 2009, from http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0400web/18.html. McAllister, C.L., Thomas, T.L., Wilson, P.C., & Green, B.L. (2009). Root Shock Revisited: Perspectives of Early Head Start Mothers on Community and Policy Environments and Their Effects on Child Health, Development, and School Readiness. American Journal of Public Health, 99(2), 205-210. Retrieved January 22, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1630875441). Riordan, C. (2004). Equality and achievement and introduction to the sociology of education (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.