Ability and achievement

Abstract

In the model used in this study, father's occupation and education, the number of siblings, and the early intelligence level of the respondent are taken to be “predetermined” variables, with no assumption made as to causal order, with respect to later achieved status and to intelligence measured at maturity. Four successive dependent variables are educational attainment, intelligence at maturity, occupational achievement, and monetary earning. Results indicate that the ideal of equal educational opportunity is realized in the white population studied to the extent that progress through the school system is influenced at least as much by how bright you are as by “who” you are. However, the fact that the latter, indexed by measures of family size and status, does make a substantial difference in educational outcome, apart from its correlation with intelligence, is an indication that the ideal is far from being completely realized at this time.