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a low-cost-chain hair-cutting salon where, on a good day, she earns $80 in tips (she also receives a small salary). She hopes to open her own franchise; her parents seem willing to help with this venture, if they can afford it. Working-class families also helped their children with educational expenses. As noted elsewhere, Ms. Driver planned to get a second job to pay for Wendy’s college, and Tyrec’s parents covered many of his school expenses. Although it is very difficult to untangle economic and cultural factors, one possible thought experiment is to imagine the changes that could happen if a working-class or poor family won the lottery. The changes that could happen in the next few days or weeks could be reasonably tied to economic factors. It is unlikely, however, that working-class and poor families would be able to acquire knowledge about the inner workings of institutions such as schools or adopt middle-class practices in terms of the management of their children’s lives outside the home. Thus, there are signs that economic factors and cultural factors have some independence from one another.

40. See Thomas A. DiPrete et al., “Segregation in Social Networks Based on Acquaintanceship and Trust,” for evidence that social networks in the United States are quite stratified, with people socializing with others in very similar social positions. Thus, it is hard for many working-class families to have access to informal knowledge widely shared in middle-class networks about educational institutions.

41. Admission procedures vary enormously; some colleges, particularly nonselective ones, have a less rigid application timeline than more elite schools. Note that Wendy’s decision to not go to college was made in the summer. Her pregnancy did not occur until December of what would have been her freshman year in college, hence it did not figure into her decision.

42. See chapter 6 in Annette Lareau, Home Advantage, for an analysis of how parents’ education, prestige, and income play a crucial role in facilitating parent involvement in schooling. See also Diane Reay, Gill Crozier, and David James, White Middle Class Identities and Urban Schooling. Janice Bloom found that even in a small school explicitly devoted to helping working-class youth apply to college, numerous challenges arose. Working-class youth and their parents sometimes had insufficient levels of knowledge and economic resources to manage aspects of the higher education application and process. One working-class student, for example, was accepted at an elite school and was awarded a financial aid package, but the “technology fee,” which came late in August, nearly derailed the student’s transition to college. Parents also tended not to differentiate between lists of items considered by the college to be optional (such as supplies for decorating a dorm room) and required items (such as course textbooks). They considered all the listed items requirements. (Bloom, personal communication, October 15, 2010).

43. See Lareau and Cox, “Social Class and the Transition to Adulthood.”

44. Many factors contributed to working-class and poor parents’ dependence on educators, including the lack of educational skills of the parents, the paucity of educational professionals in their informal networks, and limited economic resources to hire outside consultants. For a discussion of how social class shapes parent involvement in schooling see, among others, Lareau, Home Advantage.

45. In Producing Success, Peter Demerath documents demands that parents place on teachers in an upper-middle-class community.

46. Scott N. Brooks analyzes mentorship patterns in Black Men Can’t Shoot, his study of youth basketball. He shows that such transfers across high schools are common. Brooks also shows how older male coaches sponsor players. Brooks provides additional evidence of a city-wide ranking in basketball talent; this ranking supports Harold’s contention that he could have been seen as an outstanding player in the city without being on a high school team. Brooks also suggests, however,