the movement of individuals, families, households, or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society.

the idea that one requirement of treating persons as equals is that all citizens ought to be treated as equal citizens.

"On the one hand, Americans have sought to make schools an institutional expression of their democratic and egalitarian political ideals and a social mechanism for realizing these ideals" (Labaree, 1997, p. 46)

"The essence of schooling then becomes the accumulation of exchange values (grades, credits, and credentials) that can be cashed in for social status rather than the acquisition of use values (such as, the knowledge of algebra or the ability to participate in democratic governance), which provide capacities and resources that an individual can put directly into practice" (Steinberg, '1996). (Labaree, 1997, p. 67)

In conjunction with social efficiency, the other market-centered educational goal, social mobility has had the effect of radically narrowing the significance of citizenship training within American schools over the years. (Labaree, 1997, p. 67)

"More recently, schools have sought to apply this egalitarian goal to groups whose ascribed status denied them equal educational standing in the 19th century" (Labaree, 1997, p. 45)

the position in education that calls for the direct teaching of knowledge, attitudes, and skills intended to shape the individual to predetermined social characteristics.

"we can defend the public schools as a public good by drawing on the deeply rooted conceptions of education that arise from these traditions: the view that education should provide everyone with the capacities required for full political participation as informed citizens and the view that education should provide everyone with the capacities required for full economic participation as productive workers. Both of these public visions have become integrated into the structure of American education." (Labaree, 1997, p. 74)

"progressive cast to it: Tracking and other school choices are formally voluntary; the barriers between tracks are low; the opportunities for achieving higher levels of education are realizable; and, for every exit, there is the possibility of reentry into the system." (Labaree, 1997, p. 64)

"Conservative vision: Its structure has a pyramid shape similar to that of the occupational structure; tracking within this system is the norm; there are a large number of potential exit points from the system; and there are also a variety of cooling out mechanisms that encourage students to use these exits and go to work." (Labaree, 1997, p. 64)

"The social mobility goal asserts that schools should provide students with the educational credentials they need in order to get ahead in structure (or to maintain their current position)." (Labaree, 1997, p. 50)

"The potential for getting ahead via education grew increasingly into a potent reality, and the growing enrollments in the upper elementary grades began to precipitate a consumer demand for distinctive credentials at the high school and college level." (Labaree, 1997, p. 58)