EDUCATIONAL ACHIVEMENT
There is much discussion in sociology as to why some people do well academically, and some don't.
INNATE ABILITY
Less of a sociological reason.
Evaluation
Explains individual children, but not social groups. The changing relative performance over a short period of time eg. girls, shows that natural differences are less important.
OUT OF SCHOOL FACTORS
Material Factors: like housing and poverty
Cultural Factors: parental expectations, values which varies between social classes. Language development and usage has been linked to class, ethnicity and even gender have been linked to success and the lack of it.
Evaluation
Explanations tend to play down individual differences.
IN SCHOOL FACTORS
Provision influences success. M. Rutter found achievement of similar children influenced by good teacher qualities. Most studies tend to be interactionist, which draw on labelling theory; and description of pupil subcultures, which associate anti-school attitides with the working class, and the effects of the hidden curriculum.
Evaluation
These studies focus of what teachers do to pupils and not really on how pupils make make sense of things themselves. They need to look at low teacher expectations of the working class.
SOCIAL CLASS
Differences in class achievement still persists.
OUT OF SCHOOL FACTORS
Douglas (1964) showed a number of links between home and school. He said that lower classes experienced both material and cultural deprivation. Rising living standards does little to reduce underachievement.
Evaluation
This approach shifts importance to culture. But Bernstein's study of language suggests that cultural difference (language) rather than cultural deprivation is the key influence.
IN SCHOOL FACTORS
Ever since the Rosenthal and Jacobson experiment, many small-scale studies argues that teacher-pupil interaction is of crucial importance. Anti-school subculture often explained it as in the past no boy needed qualifications, and in times of high unemployment, qualifications made no difference.
Conclusions
Halsay suggested neither material circumstances nor family climate have a strong influence on achievement if children were in the same school. Much evidence suggests that social background has an effect on the way pupils experience school, including how they are treated.
Extra Information
Class, gender and ethnicity are considered separately, but in real life they interact with each other in complex ways. You can use this to evaluate explanations and studies.
Rosenthal and Jacobson (1964), in a controlled experiment, demonstrated that teachers expectations influenced pupils performance (see link above).