Organizational Differentiation Of Students And Educational Opportunity

Despite their stated intention of providing equal educational opportunity for all, many democratic countries separate their students into different classes or even different schools based on their demonstrated academic ability and likely future career. This practice is often referred to as “tracking or “ability grouping.” This study aims to determine whether different types of educational tracking have different effects on students’ academic achievement. Specifically, this study investigates whether disparities in educational achievement between students of highly educated versus minimally educated parents are greater in countries that practice more explicit and complete forms of tracking. It also explores tracking’s effects on average achievement and overall achievement variance. Analysis of data from the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) indicates that tracking generally does increase score disparities between children from different educational backgrounds. Tracking is also associated with higher overall variance of scores. At the same time, tracking may have a slight positive effect on average achievement. However, results are not consistent across all countries, and patterns are different in different subject areas and for different types of tracking. The results of this study neither condemn nor extol tracking. Rather, they indicate that tracking plays a relatively minor role in determining the quality and equity of an education system.

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The Convergence of Neutrality and Choice: The Limits of the State's Affirmative Duty to Provide Equal Educational Opportunity

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.1626858 ◽

1992 ◽

Author(s):

Wendy B. Scott

Keyword(s):

Educational Opportunity ◽

Equal Educational Opportunity

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Educational Adequacy as Legal Theory: Implications from Equal Educational Opportunity Doctrine

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.815665 ◽

2005 ◽

Author(s):

Michael Heise

Keyword(s):

Educational Opportunity ◽

Legal Theory ◽

Equal Educational Opportunity ◽

Educational Adequacy

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Trends in educational mobility: How does China compare to Europe and the United States?

Chinese Journal of Sociology ◽

10.1177/2057150x19835145 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 214-240

Author(s):

Rob J Gruijters ◽

Tak Wing Chan ◽

John Ermisch

Keyword(s):

Educational Opportunity ◽

The United States ◽

International Standards ◽

Educational Mobility ◽

The Us ◽

The Usa ◽

Economic Boom ◽

The Uk ◽

Large Decline ◽

Inequality Of Educational Opportunity

Despite an impressive rise in school enrolment rates over the past few decades, there are concerns about growing inequality of educational opportunity in China. In this article, we examine the level and trend of educational mobility in China, and compare them to the situation in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. Educational mobility is defined as the association between parents’ and children’s educational attainment. We show that China’s economic boom has been accompanied by a large decline in relative educational mobility chances, as measured by odds ratios. To elaborate, relative rates of educational mobility in China were, by international standards, quite high for those who grew up under state socialism. For the most recent cohorts, however, educational mobility rates have dropped to levels that are comparable to those of European countries, although they are still higher than the US level.

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