5: The Impact of School Resources on Students

Abstract

At the heart of the controversies surrounding public education is the strongly held belief that schools should have a positive on their clientele. To most people this premise implies that all schools should provide adequate training not only in basic literacy and computational skills but also in more advanced subject areas that are regarded as essential in technologically sophisticated societies. The impact of schooling on the young, however, is not limited to cognitive development. School experience is structured so that children also acquire values and attitudes that facilitate their integration into the competitive occupational and political worlds of adults (Dreeben, 1968). The school's emphasis on formal achievement, interpersonal competition, and certification strongly suggests how it may aid in the formation of values and attitudes and act to select students for the occupational, economic, and prestige structures of the society. Its impact as an institution on the life chances of the young is unmistakable (Blau & Duncan, 1967; Kamens, 1971; Sewell, Haller, & Ohlendorf, 1970). Critics suggest that schools teach conformity; inhibit individualism, creativity, and independent thinking; foster mediocrity; and discriminate against non-Anglo, non-middle-class students. This implies that the impact of schools depends on the quantity and quality of resources, staff, programs, and facilities that are made available to students from certain regions, localities, neighborhoods, ethnic groups, or social class backgrounds. The issue is: Do measurable differences in the characteristics of schools lead to measurable differences in student outcomes? Do schools have an impact on their clientele? Methodologically adequate

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