Inequality in top performance: an examination of cross-country variation in excellence gaps across different levels of parental socioeconomic status

Jacobs, Babs; Wolbers, M.H.J.

doi:10.1080/13803611.2018.1520130

Cited by 51 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Thus, it creates an opportunity to decrease the concerns of teachers for classes with both fast learning-and slow learning students (Hanushek and Woessmann, 2006). In other words, it seems easier for student groups with the same abilities to focus on certain learning goals and educational progress in the tracked systems (Jacobs and Wolbers, 2018). However, it is also expressed as an opposing view that tracking leads to systematic disadvantages for lower performing students who are already studying in environments, which do not promote learning sufficiently.…”

Section: Tracking and Equalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Dreams and realities of school tracking and vocational education

Özer

Perc

2020

Palgrave Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

School tracking has been introduced as a means to provide skills the labor market demands, and as such has been in place for several decades in most Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The time is thus ripe for a critical review of the effects this has had on the equalities in education and opportunities later in life, and on the quality of vocational education in general. A synthesis of the existing literature reveals gaping holes between the dreams of superior vocational education and training that educational tracking ought to deliver, and the realities of lost opportunities and facilitated inequalities, especially in students with poor socioeconomic background, weak social capital, and sparse social networks. This is all the more true the sooner educational tracking comes into effect. While most OECD countries will start tracking students aged 15 or 16, some countries, such as Germany, will start doing this as early as age 10. Our review shows that this can have catastrophic consequences for students that for various reasons perform poorly early on, as they are indeed unable to recover due to the Matthew effect and preferential attachment in social networks, both of which punish false starts in life and reward first movers. To remedy the situation, we propose educational tracking be held off until later in life, and even then be undertaken with flexibility and late bloomers in mind. We also propose to restructure vocational education by decreasing the degree of curriculum differentiation, by allowing broader vocational education curricula, and by decreasing the number of training occupations in order to account for the changing labor market dynamics.

show abstract

Section: Tracking and Equalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Dreams and realities of school tracking and vocational education

Özer

Perc

2020

Palgrave Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They encompass all manner of gaps in all STEMM fields across age groups, educational levels, and scale levels. The following list illustrates the prevalence, extreme diversity, and complexity of the subject: Kinds of gaps: excellence gap, 16,17 pay gap, 18,19 achievement gap, 20 confidence gap, 21,22 opportunity gap, 23,24 representation gap 25 STEMM‐fields: astronomy, 26,27 biology, 28,29 chemistry, 30,31 engineering, 32,33 geosciences, 34,35 computer science, 36 math, 37,38 medicine, 39,40 pharmacy, 41,42 physics 43,44 Age groups: early childhood, 45 childhood, 46,47 youth and adolescence, 48,49 adulthood 50,51 Educational levels: kindergarten, 52,53 elementary education, 23,54 secondary education, 55,56 higher education, 57,58 vocational education 59,60 Kinds of groups: ethnicity, 48,61 gender and sex, 62,63 immigrants, 64,65 migrants, 66,67 generational, 68,69 sexual orientation and gender identity, 70,71 countries, 72,73 special educational needs and disabilities, 45,71 twice exceptional 74 Scale levels: geography, 75,76 culture, 77,78 institutions and organizations, 79,80 schools, 56,81 groups, 61,82 family 83,84 …”

Section: Inequalities and Equity Gaps In Stemm Talent Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Talent denied: Equity and excellence gaps in STEMM

Ziegler,

Stoeger

2023

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In principle, there could be STEMM talent everywhere if there were sufficient and adequate opportunities and learning resources everywhere. The reality, however, is that the likelihood of developing one's talent in STEMM is tied to membership in social groups. In this contribution, we explore the implications of this statement with multiple examples for different social groups and for different stages of talent development. We propose an educational framework model for analyzing equity gaps in STEMM talent development that identifies and systematizes the unequal and inequitable distribution of resources and opportunities as the proximal cause of the emergence of such equity gaps. Furthermore, we discuss important aspects for closing equity gaps in STEMM talent development. We argue that—similar to public health approaches—the focus in establishing equity in STEMM talent development should be on prevention rather than intervention. We discuss the importance of the cooperation of societal subsystems and argue for the use of adequate methods of disparity detection for creating equal opportunities. We also outline why preventive strategies are crucial for the creation of resource parity and explain why outcome standards should be considered obligatory.

show abstract

“…Although school tracking cluster students in different high school types according to their academic achievement, considering the effects of the socioeconomic level on academic achievement, disadvantaged students are tracked based on their socioeconomic status if their disadvantages are not compensated (Bölükbafl & Gür, 2020;Cingöz & Gür, 2020;Hanushek & Woessmann, 2006;Suna et al, 2020aSuna et al, , 2020cSuna, Tanberkan & Özer, 2020d). In this way, disadvantaged students cannot participate in high-performing student communities in early school tracking (Burroughs & Plucker, 2014;Jacobs & Wolbers, 2018). Therefore, disadvantaged students often grouped in the same high school types, and consequently, the achievement differences between schools increase (Ammermüller, 2013).…”

Section: The Matthew Effect In Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Social Networks on the Labor Market Inequalities and School-to-Work Transitions

Özer¹,

Perc²

2021

Yuksekogretim Derg

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Countries invest in education systems in order to increase the quality of their human capital. In this context, it is seen that especially after the expansion of the higher education systems, countries try to increase higher education graduation rates in order to improve the quality of human resources in the labor market. The ultimate goal of these efforts is to facilitate the transitions from school-to-work, and to increase social welfare by meeting the human resources needs of the labor market. The facilitation of school-to-work transitions has a direct impact on youth unemployment. School-to-work transitions are influenced not only by the quality of education from primary to higher education but also by the dynamics of the labor market. Social network analysis can provide important insights into this dynamics, and in doing so reveal that there are indeed many factors that play a key role in determining who gets a job and why, including, first and foremost, social contacts. An analysis of job search channels reveals that partners, friends, and relatives are those social contacts that are most decisive for employment outcomes. Research reveals that employers use social-contact-based reference channels much more frequently than formal channels for recruitment. Thus, employers frequently use such reference channels in recruitment. It has also been shown that the use of social-contact channels reduces employers' costs of finding suitable employees and increases productivity since employees hired through these channels also stay longer in their firms. We here explore the full potential of social network analysis to better our understanding of school-to-work transitions, to reveal in no uncertain terms the importance of social contacts, and to show how these insights can be leveraged to level the labor market for all involved. An important take-home message is that the labor market dynamics is strongly affected by the Matthew effect, such that the inequalities and the gaps between opportunities only grow and widen as the underlying social networks evolve. It is therefore important to mitigate these effects well before school-to-work transitions come into play, namely during the education. In particular, we assert that minimizing the inequalities during education should effectively mitigate the uneven impact of social networks on school-to-work transitions.

show abstract

Inequality in top performance: an examination of cross-country variation in excellence gaps across different levels of parental socioeconomic status

Cited by 51 publications

References 31 publications

Dreams and realities of school tracking and vocational education

Dreams and realities of school tracking and vocational education

Talent denied: Equity and excellence gaps in STEMM

Impact of Social Networks on the Labor Market Inequalities and School-to-Work Transitions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About