Inequality in Educational Transitions During Secondary School: Family, Regional and Institutional Conditions
Final Report Abstract
While the transition from primary school to secondary education is well known as a central gateway for social disparities, comparatively little is known on how these initial social disparities develop during subsequent pathways through the stage of secondary schooling. The main objective of the project is analyzing the mobility of educational careers in secondary education from fifth grade onward utilizing the NEPS database. Undoubtedly, academic performance plays a key role in the development of school careers. According to our findings, pupils with a preceding change of school type had outstanding competence scores in comparison with their former schoolmates, but also considerably differed from their later peers. Both reading and mathematics competence significantly reduced the risk of dropping out of Gymnasium until ninth grade as well as in the final stage of secondary education. Higher competence levels in both domains resulted in lower dropout rates until twelfth grade, higher chances for successful graduation, and better grades in the Abitur exams. In terms of academic self-concept, the transition experience of moving upward into Gymnasium had a lasting effect on the pupils’ self-image that even surpasses the negative impact resulting from comparisons with the new reference group. Nonetheless, the disadvantage of lower competence levels appeared to outweigh the advantage of the increased self-concept, since ascended pupils still encounter a higher risk of dropping out of school until twelfth grade than stable Gymnasium attendants. Another important influencing factor is the parental level of education, which retained its effects even in the final stage of secondary education, where pupils from highly educated families were less likely to drop out of school, had a higher chance to successfully obtain the Abitur, and graduated with better grades than pupils with less educated parents. Concerning gender, boys turned out to experience a clear disadvantage relative to girls at all examined irregular transition points. Our findings demonstrate that the available options for changes in the initially taken educational career are being used in the whole course of secondary education. These path corrections take place both in downwards and upwards direction and are closely related to academic performance. In this respect, the openness of the education system leads to a continued sorting of children according to their ability during the phase of secondary schooling. At the same time, however, our analyses also reveal that performance is by no means the only criterion that decides on transitions between school types. The parental level of education turned out to play an important role in the development of educational careers until graduation. Children from lower-educated families are sorted out even further during the phase of secondary schooling. Hence, the social composition of children at the Gymnasium becomes more and more selective over time. Thus, the German educational system appears to continuously stratify children according to their ability and their socioeconomic status. This finding implies that the gap between more- and less-privileged groups is hardly narrowed but rather widened over time by opportunities to move between types of schools, which indicates a continuing process of ‘cumulative advantage’.
Publications
- (2013). Bildungsverläufe in der Sekundarstufe: Ergebnisse einer Längsschnittstudie zu Wechseln der Schulform und des Bildungsgangs. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 59(6), 887–911
Ditton, H.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.25656/01:12001) - (2013). Chancenungleichheit in schulischen Laufbahnen. In D. Deißner (ed.), Chancen bilden: Wege zu einer gerechteren Bildung – ein internationaler Erfahrungsaustausch (pp. 57–77). Wiesbaden: Springer VS
Ditton, H.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-19393-9_4) - (2013): Kontexteffekte und Bildungsungleichheit. Mechanismen und Erklärungsmuster. In R. Becker & A. Schulze (eds.): Bildungskontexte. Strukturelle Voraussetzungen und Ursachen ungleicher Bildungschancen (pp. 173–206). Wiesbaden: Springer VS
Ditton, Hartmut
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-18985-7_7) - (2013): Wer geht auf die Hauptschule? Primäre und sekundäre Effekte der sozialen Herkunft beim Übergang nach der Grundschule. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft 16(4), 731–749
Ditton, Hartmut
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11618-013-0440-y) - (2016). Secondary school differentiation and inequality of educational opportunity in Germany. In Blossfeld, H.-P., Buchholz, S., Skopek, J., & Triventi, M. (Eds.), Models of Secondary Education and Social Inequality – An International Comparison (pp. 79–92). Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing
Buchholz, S., Skopek, J., Zielonka, M., Ditton, H., Wohlkinger, F., & Schier, A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.4337/9781785367267.00014) - (2017). Soziale Disparitäten im Bildungsverlauf: Schulische Laufbahnen von der 2. bis zur 7. Jahrgangsstufe. In H. G. Holtappels (ed.), Entwicklung und Qualität des Schulsystems: Neue empirische Befunde und Entwicklungstendenzen (pp. 143–171). Münster: Waxmann
Ditton, H., Elsäßer, S. D., Gölz, N., Stahn, V., & Wohlkinger, F.
