Abstract:
Despite education reform efforts to improve the quality of education in urban lower-income areas, a continued correlation between social status and academic achievement that disproportionately disadvantages those from a lower class background remains. This thesis explores the connection between social class and the meanings placed upon education and presents a number of distinguishing elements that middle class and working-class individual's value about education in a predominantly white working-class urban neighborhood in the Midwest. More specifically, while both middle-class and working-class individuals espoused a value for parent involvement, "caring" or quality teachers, and relevant curriculums, unique schemas and meanings were evoked by each of these elements. For example, the meaning of a "caring" teacher was different for each group as each looked for different attributes as signs or markers of quality.