Arhive 2007

28 September
The USA System of Social Education and Social Inequality as Children begin school
Report on the organization of the USA Preschool Educational System.

1. P. Brandon: The Child Care Arrangements of Preschool-Age Children in Immigrant Families in the United States.
2. J. Glik and B. Hohmann-Marriott: The Academic Performance of Young Children in Immigrant Families: The Significance of Race, Ethnicity, and National Origins.
3. V. Lee, D. Burkam (2002): Inequality at the starting gate: Social background differences in achievement as children begin school.

1 October
Social Organization of USA Preschool Education.

Report “What is regression?”
Report on the organization of the USA Preschool Educational System

Discussion of works:
1. D. Entwisle, K. Alexander (1993): Entry Into School: The Primary School Transition and Educational Stratification in the United States.
2. J. Shonkoff, D. Phillips: From Neurons to Neighborhoods. Growing up and child care.

25 October
Language Competence in the Context of Social Inequality

Report “Linear Regression. Method Usage in Database Work”
Discussion of the forthcoming article by Durham, Rachel, Farkas. Kindergarten Oral Language Skills: A Key Variable in the Intergenerational Transmission of Socioeconomic Status.

1 November
Plagiarism and Cheating in Higher Educational Establishments
Discussion of the article by E. V. Sivack “Crime in the Classroom: Determinants of Dishonest Students' Behavior (Plagiarism and cheating).”

8 November
The USA Preschool Educational Social Programs and Children’s Development in Primary School

Report “Socioeconomic Status as a Variable in the Analysis of Statistics”.
Report on preschool upbringing and educational programs.
Discussion of the article Peisner-Feinberg E. S., Graham F. P. "The Relation of Preschool Child-Care Quality to Children's Cognitive and Social Development Trajectories through Second Grade.

22 November
School and Preschool Education in the Development of Cognitive and Language Skills. Migrants at school

Report on the “Head Start” Program

The Head Start (HS) Program was created in 1965 within the Struggle against Poverty Campaign in the USA. This large-scale preschool educational program funded by the government budget aims to assist children from problem families. The HS Program aims to liquidate the difference in education and development between healthy and dysfunctional families.

Discussion of the works:
1. M. Burchinal. Relating the quality of center-based child care to early cognitive and language development longitudinally.
This research uses measuring and testing as instruments to evaluate the quality of child care. Research methodology of the research concerning the ways in which young children are evaluated in terms of their cognitive and language development is also worthy of consideration. The authors prove that with the help of special training for observers, a high level of objectivity can be achieved, and through the selection of 89 people, qualitative and statistically important results can be achieved. All these conclusions are methodologically interesting and are of great value for the Laboratory’s research.

2. B. Straits. Residence, Migration, and School Progress.

This work deserves attention due to its demonstration of different effects happening as a result of a change in social circles (using the example of the USA).
It appears that geographical movement even over a short distance (50 miles within the boundaries of a region) results in a loss of social connections and takes a toll on children’s progress at school. Detrimental effects can be partly avoided due to parents' education, their socioeconomic status, etc. The conclusion of this research is of considerable interest because of the Laboratory’s project on the education of migrant children.

6 December
Charles Walker’s report (St. Anthony College, Oxford) “Primary Professional Education in Post-Soviet Russia” (in English)

13 December
Charles Walker’s report (St. Anthony College, Oxford) “The UK System of Education, Personal Experience” (in English)

14-16 December
Seminar out of the city (together with the Moscow HSE Institutional Analysis Laboratory, Voronovo (Moscow region)
The interim results of the research work “University Economics” and other institutional analysis Laboratory projects were reported. Mikhail Sokolov represented the Education and Science Sociology Laboratory, giving a report entitled “Russian Sociology after 1991: Institutional and Intellectual Dynamics of a 'poor science.'”