Educational Mobility and Access: Growth and Paradoxes

The educational attainments of American males aged 25-64 are examined in relation to the educational backgrounds of their fathers. Although attainment levels improve for men in all status groups over time, the differences in reaching and completing college between men from high-and low-status origins appear to be increasing over time in both actual and conditional probabilities. When race is introduced as a control, the attainments of whites exceed those of non-whites for all status and age groups. Although these social differences are generally greatest at the lower levels of schooling, they are also subtantial at the college level among men with better educated fathers.