Categorical Inequality: Schools As Sorting Machines Summary

“Categorical Inequality: Schools As Sorting Machines,” by Thurston Domina, Andrew Penner, and Emily Penner, discuss the concept of categorical inequality and how it presents itself in modern educational research. According to Domina and Penner, there are many issues today about the educational policy system including various graduation requirements and acceptance into selective schools; which can easily be manipulated into unequal educational categories. The theory of this inequality questions the interaction between schools and different social categories like gender, race, and class. The authors argue that schools are the most important “egalitarian institutions” in today’s society and also that schools essentially construct social inequality. Domina and Penner state that categorical inequality is split into two insights. The first insight is creating and expanding categories within schools, and second, the creation of categories in schools are basically the starting point of enduring social inequalities. Institutions attempt to provide an equitable space by distributing learning opportunities equally to students from all different backgrounds, yet there are still advantages for specific “meritocratic” groups.
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