Does Educational Tracking Affect Performance and Inequality? Differences-in-Differences Evidence across Countries
Year: 2005
Type: report
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Even though some countries track students into differing-ability schools by age 10, others keep their entire secondary-school system comprehensive.To estimate the effects of such institutional differences in the face of country heterogeneity, we employ an international differences-indifferences approach.We identify tracking effects by comparing differences in outcome between primary and secondary school across tracked and non-tracked systems.Six international student assessments provide eight pairs of achievement contrasts for between 18 and 26 cross-country comparisons.The results suggest that early tracking increases educational inequality.While less clear, there is also a tendency for early tracking to reduce mean performance.Therefore, there does not appear to be any equity-efficiency trade-off.
DOI: 10.3386/w11124
Authors: Eric Hanushek, Ludger Woessmann
Institutions: Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Boston College, European Commission
OpenAlex ID: W4301101424