This volume is a mixture of research reviews, theoretical syntheses, and empirical analyses addressing issues in the sociology of education. Following an introduction by Aaron M. Pallas, the book is divided into eight chapters: (1) "The Sociology of Education: Its Development in the United States" (Robert Dreeben); (2) "In Comparative Isolation: Why Comparative Research Has So Little Influence on American Sociology of Education" (David P. Baker); (3) "Theoretical Diversity in the Analysis of Gender and Education" (Linda Grant, Patrick M. Horan, and Betty Watts-Warren); (4) "Coming Together and Breaking Apart: Unifying and Differentiating Processes in Schools and Classrooms" (Gary Natriello); (5) "The Influence of Subject Areas on Middle School Tracking Policies" (Tom Loveless); (6) "Single-Gender Schools: Outcomes for African and Hispanic Americans" (Cornelius Riordan); (7) "Fear of Falling from Grace: The Middle Class, Downward Mobility, and School Desegregation" (Roslyn Arlin Mickelson and Carol Axtell Ray); (8) "Thinking about an Occupation: A New Developmental and Contextual Perspective" (Barbara Schneider). Contains references at the end of each chapter. (ND)