Jencks, Christopher

Christopher Jencks's (1936-) work focuses on education, social policy, and inequality. Much of his research has explored the degree to which education, family background, genetics, and environmental characteristics influence achievement, labor market outcomes and socioeconomic outcomes. Jencks earned a bachelors and masters of education from Harvard, before enrolling in the sociology department of the London School of Economics. He held faculty positions in the department of sociology at both Harvard (1973–79) and Northwestern University (1979–96), and is currently the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Throughout much of Jencks's career, his work has focused on the role of educational institutions in social stratification. Early work investigated stratification in the organization of American higher education and mechanisms of inequality ...