Does Schooling Decrease Socioeconomic Inequality in Early Achievement? A Differential Exposure Approach

Does schooling affect socioeconomic inequality in educational achievement? Earlier studies based on seasonal comparisons suggest schooling can equalize social gaps in learning. Yet recent replication studies have given rise to skepticism about the validity of older findings. We shed new light on the debate by estimating the causal effect of 1st-grade schooling on achievement inequality by socioeconomic family background in Germany. We elaborate a differential exposure approach that estimates the effect of exposure to 1st-grade schooling by exploiting (conditionally) random variation in test dates and birth dates for children who entered school on the same calendar day. We use recent data from the German NEPS to test school-exposure effects for a series of learning domains. Findings clearly indicate that 1st-grade schooling increases children’s learning in all domains. However, we do not find any evidence that these schooling effects differ by children’s socioeconomic background. We conclude that, although all children gain from schooling, schooling has no consequences for social inequality in learning. We discuss the relevance of our findings for sociological knowledge on the role of schooling in the process of stratification and highlight how our approach complements seasonal comparison studies.

Intensity and content of private tutoring lessons during German secondary schooling: effects on students’ grades and test achievement

Private supplementary tutoring is a widespread phenomenon. However, evidence that private tutoring has positive effects on academic achievement or about the specific conditions of successful private tutoring is rare. Adapting Carroll’s (1963) model for school learning to private tutoring, we expected to find positive effects of tutoring duration, tutoring intensity, and students’ motivation to attend private tutoring. In a sample of eighth-grade students in German secondary schools (N = 8510, 18.6% currently being tutored), we conducted regression analyses with multiple covariates and did not find a positive main effect of private tutoring attendance in any of the school subjects examined. Moreover, within the subsamples of tutored students, we were not able to identify positive effects of tutoring duration, tutoring intensity, tutoring content (such as a focus on homework completion, test preparation, or study behavior), or students’ motivation to attend private tutoring. Given these disillusioning findings, we primarily derive suggestions for future research.

Comparing Perceptual Speed Between Educational Contexts

Perceptual speed is a basic component of cognitive functioning that allows people to efficiently process novel visual stimuli and quickly react to them. In educational studies, tests measuring perceptual speed are frequently developed using students from regular schools without considering students with special educational needs. Therefore, it is unclear whether these instruments allow valid comparisons between different school tracks. The present study on N = 3,312 students from the National Educational Panel Study evaluated differential item functioning (DIF) of a short test of perceptual speed between four school tracks in Germany (special, basic, intermediate, and upper secondary schools). Bayesian Rasch Poisson counts modeling identified negligible DIF that did not systematically disadvantage specific students. Moreover, the test reliabilities were comparable between school tracks. These results highlight that perceptual speed can be comparably measured in special schools, thus enabling educational researchers to study schooling effects in the German educational system.

Does schooling decrease social inequality in early achievement?

Does schooling affect social inequality in educational achievement? Earlier studies based on seasonal comparisons suggested schooling to equalize social gaps in achievement, but recent replication studies gave rise to skepticism about the validity of older findings. We propose an alternative causal design that identifies schooling exposure effects by exploiting (conditionally) random variation in test dates and birth dates for children participating in assessment studies. We test effects of school exposure in first grade for a series of learning domains (vocabulary, grammar, math, and science) by drawing on recent data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Findings clearly indicate that schooling increases learning in all domains and particularly in math and science. However, we did not find any evidence that schooling effects differed by children’s socio-economic background. We conclude that, while all children benefitted by first-grade exposure, first-grade schooling had no consequences for social inequality in learning. We discuss the relevance of our approach and results in the context of the massive school lockdowns due to the COVID-19 crisis and to further knowledge on the roleof schooling in the process of social stratification.