Credentialism
credentialism the emphasis on certificates or degrees to show that a person has a certain skill, has attained a certain level of education, or has met certain job qualifications cultural capital cultural knowledge that serves (metaphorically) as currency to help one navigate a culture cultural transmission the way people come to learn the values, beliefs, and social norms of their culture education a social institution through which a society’s children are taught basic academic knowledge,
learning skills, and cultural norms formal education the learning of academic facts and concepts grade inflation the idea that the achievement level associated with an A today is notably lower than the
achievement level associated with A-level work a few decades ago Head Start program a federal program that provides academically focused preschool to students of low
socioeconomic status hidden curriculum the type of nonacademic knowledge that people learn through informal learning and
cultural transmission informal education education that involves learning about cultural values, norms, and expected behaviors
through participation in a society No Child Left Behind Act an act that requires states to test students in prescribed grades, with the results of
those tests determining eligibility to receive federal funding social placement the use of education to improve one’s social standing sorting classifying students based on academic merit or potential tracking a formalized sorting system that places students on “tracks” (advanced, low achievers) that
perpetuate inequalities universal access the equal ability of all people to participate in an education system
