Pure ethnic gaps in educational attainment and school to work transitions: When do they arise?

Abstract

Abstract. This article decomposes the observed gaps in educational attainment and school-to-work transitions in Belgium between grandchildren of natives and of women of "non-Western" nationality into (i) differences in observed family endowments and (ii) a residual "pure ethnic gap".It innovates by explicitly taking delays in educational attainment into account, by identifying the moments at which the pure ethnic gaps arise, by disentangling the decision to continue schooling at the end of a school year from the achievement within a particular grade, and by integrating the language spoken at home among observed family endowments. The pure ethnic gap in educational attainment is found to be small if delays are neglected, but substantial if not and for school-to-work transitions. It is shown that more than 20% of the pure ethnic gap in graduating from secondary school without delay originates in tenth grade. Language usage explains only part of the gap in school-to-work transitions for low educated.

Modeling the effects of grade retention in high school

“…However, in practice, parents follow teachers' judgment on whether their child is school ready(Baert & Cockx, 2013). However, in practice, parents follow teachers' judgment on whether their child is school ready(Baert & Cockx, 2013).…”

The effect of modular education on school dropout

“…Consequently, our results propose that modular education may be an important tool to enable students of foreign origin-who are typically vulnerable to school dropout (Baert & Cockx, 2013)-to come at par with native Belgian students (without exacerbating the dropout rate of the latter). In particular, we find that modular education decreases the high school dropout rate by 2 percentage points for native Belgian students and by as much as 7.7 percentage points for foreign origin students (from a disturbingly high baseline dropout rate of 42% for foreign origin students).…”

Socio-Economic Status and Enrollment in Higher Education: Do Costs Matter?

“…3 Baert and Cockx (2013) demonstrate that the ethnic gap in participation in tertiary education is eliminated when controlling for family background and previous schooling. Galindo-Rueda et al (2004) conclude that much of the impact from social class on university attendance actually occurs well before entry into higher education.…”

“…Family income, parental education and race are important determinants of the participation decision, see for example Steiner and Wrohlich (2012), Acemoglu and Pischke (2001), Frenette (2006) and Cameron and Heckman (2001) 2 . Most studies …nd that e¤ect of socio-economic status on enrollment in higher education decreases when controlling for academic ability developed during previous schooling, see for example Baert and Cockx (2013) and Galindo-Rueda et al (2004) 3 .…”