Secondary school differentiation and inequality of educational opportunity in Germany

Buchholz, Sandra; Škopek, Jan; Zielonka, Markus; Ditton, Hartmut; Wohlkinger, Florian; Schier, Antonia

doi:10.4337/9781785367267.00014

Cited by 18 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…Previous research on Germany seems to be quite conclusive about the polarizing effects of the tracking system. Access to the academic track is highly socially selective, which is only partly explained by SES differences in students' prior achievement (Buchholz et al 2016;Neugebauer et al 2013;Stocké 2007). Track mobility during secondary education years is rare, mostly downward directed, and socially selective even after accounting for students' achievements (Buchholz et al 2016).…”

Section: The German Context Of Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioeconomic Inequality in Children’s Achievement from Infancy to Adolescence: The Case of Germany

Škopek

Passaretta

2020

Social Forces

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When in children’s lives do gaps by family socioeconomic status (SES) in cognitive skills emerge, how large are they before children enter school, and how do they develop over schooling? We study the evolution of achievement gaps by parental education from birth to adolescence in Germany. We exploit data from fifty-seven tests taken from the age of seven months to sixteen years by the National Educational Panel Study. Because Germany has one of the most stratified education systems in the Western World, we hypothesized that achievement gaps will grow particularly during tracked secondary schooling. However, our findings show that SES gaps emerge and expand long before children enter school and then remain stable throughout their school careers. Because gaps stop growing, we tentatively conclude that schooling decreases inequality in learning by family SES.

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Section: The German Context Of Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioeconomic Inequality in Children’s Achievement from Infancy to Adolescence: The Case of Germany

Škopek

Passaretta

2020

Social Forces

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“…Mobility may also be motivated by family dynamics, such as separations, repartnering, deaths, or simply having more children (e.g., Feijten & van Ham 2007). Union dissolution has been shown to have a negative impact on children's educational attainment although the exact mechanisms behind this continue to be debated (e.g., 2017, 2016. Union dissolution often leads to a loss in available financial resources, particularly due to the loss of economies of scale.…”

Section: Background and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Germany, students are selected after four to six years of initial primary schooling (at ages 10-12) into three different tracks of secondary schooling: lower secondary school (Hauptschule), middle secondary school (Realschule) and upper secondary school (Gymnasium). At the end of primary schooling teachers make recommendations on which secondary school track is most suitable for each child based on pupils average grades in German and Math, in some Federal States these are binding while in others they are recommendations (Buchholz et al 2016).…”

Section: Cross-national Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Left Behind? The impact of geographical mobility on children's educational attainment in Finland and Germany.

McMullin¹,

Erola²,

Kilpi-Jakonen³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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It is often assumed that families migrate to improve their economic and social prospects, and that these additional resources can benefit the whole family. However, existing research suggests that many children who have experienced (internal) migration underperform compared to their non-migrating peers in terms of different socioeconomic outcomes. In this paper, we study the effects of geographical mobility on children’s educational attainment in Finland and Germany using Finnish register data and the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) respectively.Our findings indicate that moving during childhood is associated with the risk of not attaining any secondary degree in both countries. In Finland, this is mostly explained by negative selection into moving, (i.e. those who move are more likely to be disadvantaged). For Germany however, an independent association between moving and educational attainment remains after taking into account various reasons why families move. Furthermore, for both Germany and Finland, any labour force status or earning gains parents make, after a move, do not seem to compensate for the negative influence of internal migration on children’s educational attainment. Overall, we conclude that that when children move something remains behind, therefore schools have an important role to play in integrating internal migrants – as well as international migrants – into the social networks of the schools they arrive in.

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“…The sorting at the secondary school juncture is therefore important for future educational attainment. Students are tracked by ability around age 10 to 12 (after four to six grades) into one of basically three secondary school tracks: the upper track where students can obtain an Abitur – the university entrance degree (attained after grades 12 or 13, depending on the state); the intermediate track towards the Realschulabschluss (after grade 10); or the lower track towards the Hauptschulabschluss (after grade 9 or 10) (see e.g., Witte & Kalleberg, 1995; Protsch and Solga, 2016; Buchholz et al, 2016; Lauterbach and Fend, 2016). Students are sorted into these secondary school tracks based on previous grades, teachers’ recommendations, and choice (rules of access partly differ among the federal states).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Students are sorted into these secondary school tracks based on previous grades, teachers’ recommendations, and choice (rules of access partly differ among the federal states). One caveat, however, is that recent research has pointed to an often underestimated prevalence of students’ track mobility, especially in terms of upgrading to higher degrees after the first (lowest) degrees have been obtained (Buchholz et al, 2016; Lauterbach and Fend, 2016). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment: Evidence from Germany

Ryberg

Bauldry

Schultz

et al. 2017

J Youth Adolescence

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Research based in the United States, with its relatively open educational system, has found that personality mediates the relationship between parents’ and child’s educational attainment and this meditational pattern is especially beneficial to students from less-educated households. Yet in highly structured, competitive educational systems, personal characteristics may not predict attainment or may be more or less consequential at different points in the educational career. We examine the salience of personality in the educational attainment process in the German educational system. Data come from a longitudinal sample of 682 seventeen to twenty-five year-olds (54% female) from the 2005 and 2015 German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Results show that adolescent personality traits — openness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness — are associated with educational attainment, but personality plays a negligible role in the intergenerational transmission of education. Personality is influential before the decision about the type of secondary degree that a student will pursue (during adolescence). After that turning point, when students have entered different pathways through the system, personality is less salient. Cross-national comparisons in a life course framework broaden the scope of current research on non-cognitive skills and processes of socioeconomic attainment, alerting the analyst to the importance of both institutional structures and the changing importance of these skills at different points in the life course.

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Secondary school differentiation and inequality of educational opportunity in Germany

Cited by 18 publications

References 0 publications

Socioeconomic Inequality in Children’s Achievement from Infancy to Adolescence: The Case of Germany

Socioeconomic Inequality in Children’s Achievement from Infancy to Adolescence: The Case of Germany

Left Behind? The impact of geographical mobility on children's educational attainment in Finland and Germany.

Personality and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment: Evidence from Germany

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