Abstract
During the last 50 years, private ‘feeder’ schools in Japan came to dominate entry into elite colleges. Intense organizational competition shaped the organizational environment and changed the pathways available to social elites. Compared to Japan, elite private feeders in the US have failed to dominate pathways into elite colleges.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
This represents an informal segmentation of part of the secondary system that is already formally segmented into non-college bound high schools (technical, commercial, industrial, etc. high schools, and academic (college-bound) high schools).
For the most recent data on feeder schools at Tokyo and Kyoto University, seehttp://www.biwa.ne.jp/~syuichi/toudai-ranking.htmlhttp://www.biwa.ne.jp/~syuichi/kyodai-ranking.html
The term ‘prep school’ is used differently in both Britain and France. In Britain, the term means private elite schools that enroll students aged 8 to 13 years and link to the ironically named British ‘public schools,’ which are also elite and private. French preparatory schools (Classes Preparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles) are also elite, selective institutions, but are largely public and enroll students aged 19–21 years.
References
Attewell, P. (2001) ‘The winner-take-all high school: organizational adaptations to educational stratification’, Sociology of Education 74 (3): 267–295.
Baker, D., Akiba, M., LeTendre, G and Wiseman, A (2001) ‘Worldwide shadow education: outside-school learning, institutional quality of schooling, and cross-national mathematics achievement’, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 23 (1): 1–18.
Berger, P. and Luckman, T. (1966) The Social Construction of Reality, New York: Anchor.
Collins, R. (1971) ‘Functional and conflict theories of educational stratification’, American Sociological Review 36: 1002–1019.
Cookson, P. and Persell, C. (1985) Preparing for Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools, New York: Basic Books.
Cummings, W. (1990) The Changing Academic Marketplace And University Reform in Japan, New York: Garland Publishing.
Cummings, W., Amano, I. and Kitamura, K. (1977) Changes in the Japanese University, New York: Praeger.
Dimaggio, P. and Powell, W. (1991) The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dore, R.P. (1965) Education in Tokugawa Japan, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press.
Douglas, M. (1986) How Institutions Think, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Farnum, R. (1997) ‘Elite college discrimination and the limits of conflict theory’, Harvard Educational Review 67: 507–530.
Ishida, H. (1993) Social Mobility in Contemporary Japan, London: Macmillan.
Karabel, J. (1984) ‘Status-group struggle, organizational interests, and the limits on institutional autonomy: the transformation of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1918–1940’, Theory and Society 13: 1–40.
Karen, D. (1990) ‘Toward a political-organizational model of gatekeeping: the case of elite cases’, Sociology of Education 63: 227–240.
Kariya, T. and Rosenbaum, J.E. (1999) ‘Bright flight: unintended consequences of detracking policy in Japan’, American Journal of Education 107 (3): 210–230.
Kariya, T. (1985) ‘The mechanism of educational selection through the hierarchical structure of high school — a study of the cooling-out process of educational aspirations’, Contributions to Research in Secondary Education 4: 11–28.
LeTendre, G. (1994) ‘Distribution tables and private tests: The failure of middle school reform in Japan’, International Journal of Educational Reform 3 (2): 126–136.
LeTendre, G. (1996) ‘Constructed aspirations: decision-making processes in Japanese Educational Selection’, Sociology of Education 69 (3): 193–216.
Lexington (2004) ‘The Curse of Nepotism’, The Economist, 10 January, p. 37.
Lincicome, M. (1995) Principles, Praxis, and the Politics of Educational Reform in Meiji Japan, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
McDonough, P. (1997) Choosing Colleges: How Social Class and Schools Structure Opportunity, Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Meyer, J. (1977) ‘The World Educational Revolution, 1950–1970’, Sociology of Education 50: 242–258.
Meyer, J.W. (1970) ‘The charter: conditions of diffuse socialization in schools’, in W.R. Scott (ed.) Social Processes and Social Structures: An Introduction to Sociology, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., pp. 564–578.
Nogaki, Y. (1978) Gendai no Kodomo (Today's Children), in Nihon Kodomo no Rekishi (The History of Japanese Children), Vol. 7., Tokyo: Dai Ichi HouKi.
Oakes, J. (1985) Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Office of Educational Research and Improvement. (1998) The Educational System in Japan: Case Study Findings, Washington, DC:US Department of Education.
Okano, K. (1993) School to Work Transition in Japan, Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Okano, K. (1995) ‘Rational decision making and school-based job referrals for high school students in Japan’, Sociology of Education 68 (1): 31–47.
Ono, H. (2001) ‘Who Goes to College? Features of Institutional Tracking in Japanese Higher Education’, American Journal of Education 109: 161–195.
Powell, A.G. (1996) Lessons from Privilege: The American Prep School Tradition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Rohlen, T.P. (1983) Japan's High Schools, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Roesgard, M. (2005) Japanese Education and the Cram School Business, Copenhagen, Denmark: NIAS Press.
Rosenbaum, J. and Kariya, T. (1989) ‘From high school to work: market and institutional mechanisms in Japan’, American Journal of Sociology 94 (6): 1134–1165.
Rubinger, R. (1982) Private Academies of Tokugawa Japan, Princeton: University Press.
Scott, R. (1995) Institutions and Organizations, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication.
Scott, W.R. and Meyer, J. (eds.) (1994) Institutional Environments and Organizations, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Shimizu, H. and Tokuda, K. (eds.) (1991) Yomigaere: Kouritsu Chuugakkou (Nanchu: An Ethnography), Tokyo: Kobunsha.
Synott, M.G. (1979) The Half-Opened Door: Discrimination and Admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1900–1970, Westport: Greenwood.
Treiman, D. and Yamaguchi, K. (1993) ‘Trends in educational attainment in Japan’, in Y. Shavit and H. Blossfeld (eds.) Persistent Inequality: Changing Educational Attainment in Thirteen Countries, Boulder: Westview Press, pp. 229–249.
Tsukada, M. (1991) Yobiko Life: A Study of Legitimation Process of Social Stratification in Japan, Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies.
Uchida, T. and Mori, T. (1979), in A. Naka (ed.) Chugakko/Kotogakko no rekishi. (The History of Middle and High Schools). Gakko no rekishi (The History of the School), Tokyo: Dai-ichi Houki, p. 3.
Weiss, K.R. (2000, January 9) ‘New test-taking skill: working the system’, The Los Angeles Times, pp. A1, A20–A21.
Wechsler, H. (1977) The Qualified Student: A History of Selective College Admissions in America, New York: Wiley.
Zeng, K. (1996) ‘Prayer, luck, and spiritual strength: the desecularization of entrance examination systems in East Asia’, Comparative Education Review 40 (3): 264–279.
Zeng, K. (1999) Dragon Gate: Competitive Examinations and Their Consequences, New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Zweigenhaft, R.L. (1993) ‘Prep school and public school graduates of Harvard: a longitudinal study of the accumulation of social and cultural capital’, Journal of Higher Education 64 (2): 211–225.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
LeTendre, G., Gonzalez, R. & Nomi, T. Feeding the Elite: The Evolution of Elite Pathways from Star High Schools to Elite Universities. High Educ Policy 19, 7–30 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300108
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300108