Sociology 441: Stratification

The Wisconsin model of status attainment

The distinctive feature of the Wisconsin model is the key role of expectations, and aspirations in explaining why children from high status families go to college and get higher status jobs. The model also includes measures of mental ability and grades. Usually, the primary outcome studied is occupational status as measured by the Duncan Socio-Economic Index.

The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) uses a sample of 10,317 men and women who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957. This sample has been followed up in several subsequent surveys (the most recent was in 1992!) so we can study how 1957 characteristics of high school students affect their eventual outcomes.

Although the study has been a staple of sociological research, its limitation to Wisconsin high school graduates entails some obvious disadvantages. First, it ignores the approximately one quarter of the age cohort who never graduated high school. Therefore, it is not a good sample for studies of poverty or other outcomes concentrated among high school dropouts. Second, there were very few minorities in Wisconsin in 1957 so it is not a good sample for studying racial inequality.

More recent panel studies such as the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY) and High School and Beyond incorporate many of the innovations first included in the WLS but use national samples. But no other study has such a long time frame.

Among the many, many publications coming from the WLS, see Sewell, Haller, and Ohlendorf 1970, Sewell, Hauser, and Wolf 1980, and Sewell and Hauser 1975.