The Education Trap
Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston
Harvard University Press, 2021
Winner of the IPUMS USA 2021 Research Award and co-winner of the Harvard University Press Thomas J. Wilson Memorial Prize for best first book
“Does education always bring more equality? Not necessarily: sometimes education is used to legitimize unfair inequality in pay and power and to promote a pseudomeritocratic and deeply inegalitarian ideology. By looking at early-twentieth-century Boston, this fascinating book teaches a lesson about today: a more equitable society requires a fight for justice, not only in education, but in the workplace and in the tax system.”—Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century
“Challenging conventional wisdom, Cristina Groeger shows how increased educational opportunities can reinforce inequality when political and social elites deploy credentialism to generate new occupational hierarchies based on gender, race, ethnicity, class, and citizenship. Her probe of Boston a century ago uncovers the deeper historical roots of the ‘education trap.’”—Eileen Boris, author of Making the Woman Worker: Precarious Labor and the Fight for Global Standards, 1919–2019
“Groeger challenges America’s central myth that education can substantially counteract social and economic inequality. This subtle, finely grained analysis of Boston schools and economic development from the Gilded Age to World War II offers a provocative rereading of social class, technological innovation, and racial and gender differentiation in the nation’s public and private classrooms.”—Leon Fink, author of The Long Gilded Age: American Capitalism and the Lessons of a New World Order
“This exquisite book forces us to question one of our most firmly held assumptions: that education is the pathway to equality. Through a closely told history of Boston, Groeger’s work compels us social scientists, historians, and the public to rethink our vision of how to achieve a more equitable society.”—Shamus Khan, author of Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School
Data
The quantitative backbone of The Education Trap is historical census data. Click here for more details about how I used and visualized this data in the book.
Virtual Book Tour:
March 12, 2021
Harvard Book Store
12pm EST with Nick Juravich
April 13, 2021
UMass Boston
3pm EST with Tara Parker and Nick Juravich
April 22, 2021
Labor & Working-Class History Association
7pm EST
April 23, 2021
Harvard Graduate School of Education
12pm EST with Tony Jack and Eddie Cole
May 18th
Pilsen Community Books
7pm CST with Jon Shelton
May 25th
History of Education Society Book Club
7pm-9pm EST
June 14 Massachusetts Historical Society
5:30pm EST with Michael Glass
June 23rd Boston Public Library / WGBH Forum Network
6pm EST with Hilary Moss
Oct. 21, 2021 History and Education Colloquium - Teachers College, Columbia University
5:30pm ET
Feb. 16, 2022 “Facing Savage Inequalities” Speaker Series - Northeastern University
12pm ET
Reviews:
Megan Erickson, “How Did US Education Become So Unequal?” The Nation, July 12/19, 2021
Steven Mintz, “Higher Education: Equalizer or Engine of Inequality?” Inside Higher Education, May 24, 2021
Jeffery Melnick, “The Myth of Higher Education’s Magic,” Academe 108:4, Fall 2022, 42-45
Matthew Johnson, “Hierarchy and Higher Education,” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 21:3, July 2022, 247-249
David Labaree, “The Education Trap,” The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 14:3, Fall 2021, 481-483
Tracy Steffers, “The Education Trap,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 52:4, Spring 2022
Mario Rios Perez, “The Education Trap,” History of Education Quarterly 63:3, August 2022, 364-367
Penelope Lusk, “The Education Trap,” Gender, Work, and Organization 30, 2023, 1859-1861
Erin Michaels, “The Education Trap,” Contemporary Sociology 51:5, September 2022, 386-388
Walter Stern, “The Education Trap,” American Journal of Education 128:3, May 2022, 519-524
Lily Geismer, “The Education Trap,” Business History, May 12, 2021
Tara Parker, “The Education Trap,” Labor History 62:4, 2021, 532-533
Mitchell L. Stevens, “Harvard-Riverside, Round Trip,” Public Books, August 11, 2021
Marshall Steinbaum, “The New Politics of Higher Education,” Boston Review, April 13, 2021
Emily Y. Tran, “The Education Trap” Urban History 49:1, February 2022
Gisselle Rodriguez Benitez, “The Education Trap,” Journal of International Women's Studies; 24: 5, Aug 2022, 1-3.
Rebecca S. Montgomery, “The Education Trap,” American Nineteenth Century History 22:3, 2022, 345-347
Theodor Bain, “The Education Trap,” Journal of American Culture 45:3, 2022, p.333-334
Neil Dhingra, "The Education Trap,” Journal of Educational Foundations 35:1, Spring 2022, 193-198
Stephen Masyada, “Moving through the worlds of work: The myth of education as the great equalizer,” Theory & Research in Social Education, June 2022
Eric Torres, “The Education Trap,” Harvard Educational Review, 91:2, Summer 2021
Matthew Rankin, “The Education Trap,” Teachers College Record, June 28, 2021
Erika Kitzmiller, “Education Failed to be an Equalizer,” The Metropole, June 9, 2021
Lisa Kenny, “The Education Trap,” The Educational Forum, March 19, 2021
Hannah Ingersoll, “The Education Trap,” Work and Occupations, March 4, 2021
Jacqueline Snider, “The Education Trap,” Library Journal, February, 2021
“The Education Trap,” Publishers Weekly, December, 2021
Media:
CV Groeger, “Want to Address Inequality? Stop Waiting for Schools to Solve Everything,” Boston Globe Magazine, September 28, 2021
CV Groeger, “The Education Fix,” Dissent Magazine, February 12, 2021
Mike Stivers, “No, Education Still Won’t Solve Poverty,” Interview with Cristina Groeger, Jacobin Magazine, April 14, 2021
"No, la educación por sí sola no resuelve la pobreza," Viento Sur, August 23, 2021
Rodrigo Santodomingo, “La expansión educativa no siempre permite reducir la desigualdad,” Interview with Cristina Groeger, Magisterio, June 8, 2021
Excerpt of “The Education Trap,” Public Seminar, March 22, 2021
Diane Ravitch, “Cristina Groeger: How Education Embedded Inequality” Diane Ravitch Blog, February 12, 2021
CV Groeger, “How Education Embedded Inequality,” Institute of Arts and Ideas, January 20, 2021
Podcasts:
Adam Johnson, “The Convenient Conventional Wisdom of "‘Education as Great Equalizer”Appeals,” Citations Needed, September 14, 2022
Ryan Tibbens, “The Education Trap: Social Mobility and the Public School,” ClassCast Podcast, July 6, 2021
Will Brehm, “Remaking Inequality Through Education,” FreshEd Podcast, May 17, 2021
Jessica Levy, “Cristina Groeger on Education, Labor and Inequality in Boston,” Who Makes Cents, May 3, 2021
Richard Aldous, “Cristina Groeger on Education and Economic Disparity,” Bookstack, April 9, 2021
Stephen Pimpare, “The Education Trap,” New Books Network, April 2, 2021
Tyler Alderson, “The Education Trap with Cristina Groeger,” AskHistorians, March 20, 2021
Jennifer Berkshire & Jack Schneider, “Learning to Earn” Have You Heard?, February 25th, 2021
Videos:
Boston Public Library / GBH Forum Network Book Talk with Hilary Moss, June 23rd, 2021
Massachusetts Historical Society Book Talk with Michael Glass, June 14, 2021
Pilsen Community Books Book Talk with Jon Shelton, May 18, 2021
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Gutman Library Book Talk with Anthony Jack and Eddie Cole, April 23, 2021
Labor and Working Class History Association (LAWCHA) Book Talk, April 22, 2021
UMass Boston Labor Resource Center Book Talk with Tara Parker and Nick Juravich, April 13th, 2021
Harvard Book Store Book Talk with Nick Juravich, March 12, 2021