Class Practices and the College Process in a Suburban, Public High School
Class Practices and the College Process in a Suburban, Public High School
Creating Distinction around the Highly Selective College-Going Self
Chapter 3 focuses on students and parents in an iconic affluent public suburban secondary school. In this chapter, we trace how parents position their children for advantage beginning at an early age, a topic that takes center stage in our rendition of “class work” with respect to this particular group. Parents engage a great deal of “up front” class work, and assist their children in taking on identities as “selective college goers,” so that they may “lead from behind” at the point of college applications. We trace the ways in which students and parents enact and conceptualize their work in the secondary school as well as the ways in which the school, through its college culture and its system of tracking students, contributes to shaping student aspirations, expectations, and outcomes.
Keywords: public schools, meritocracy, distinction, identity development, “selection by mortgage”, tracking, class practices, “leading from behind”
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