Davis N Moore

• Parsons

  Ascribed Status- a person that is assigned at birth or assumed involuntarily later in life. 
• Achieved Status


  Status that is worked for
• Education ‘sifts and sorts’ people into roles/positions in society i.e. they are allocated roles based on ability.
• ROLE ALLOCATION & LEGITIMISATION OF INEQUALITY:

  Some people make it further than others in society i.e. they are able to gain higher status  positions in society whilst others remain in low status positions. This inequality is inevitable and necessary (some are naturally more talented than others and skilled jobs e.g. surgeons require talent) but education means roles are fairly allocated.
• Eval


  •Marxists argue meritocracy is a myth. Not everyone has an equal chance of doing well at school due to economic and cultural inequality.•Ethnic and gender differences in educational attainment also suggest a lack of meritocracy.•It could also be argued that young people are still maturing so their life chances shouldn’t be based on their actions when still developing.
• Official statistics show that some groups do less well at school than others (e.g. working class boys) suggesting schools cannot be wholly meritocratic
• Marxists think that schools serve the ruling class and transmit ruling class ideology (e.g. passive obedience to authority) rather than shared values
• Wrong (1961) argues functionalists have an 'over-socialised view' of people who just passively accept socialisation. In reality many students rebel against school
• Not all students are taught specialist skills in school – Wolf review of vocational education (2011) claims up to a third of 16-19 year olds are on courses not leading to higher education or good jobs