Students in Secondary Schools in France, 1864

This study is based on data collected from questionnaires administered in 1864 by the French historian Victor Duruy, who was serving as Minister of Education under Napoleon III. In Duruy's inquiry into France's secondary schools and students, leaders of French education answered more than 100 questions on a variety of subjects including curriculum, textbooks, qualifications of instructors, the relationship between public and private schools, and the public image of these schools. This file contains the portion of those data that illuminates the socioeconomic origins of students and the degree of social mobility fostered by public education. The 27,771 records in the file represent each of the students and graduates who were studied, as well as many of their fathers. Variables selected from the original questionnaire to be used specifically to analyze mobility include school identification number, departement/province number, type of school/lycee/college, student identification number, student status (current or graduate), intended occupation of student/graduate, occupation of student's father, type of curriculum at schools, occupational groupings of students, and occupational groupings of fathers.