Untracked or off-track? Inequality of educational opportunity and comprehensive schools in Germany

受教育程度上的社会不平等是现代社会的固有特征。然而，社会出身对个人教育成果的影响程度因制度背景而异（Shavit and Blossfeld 1993; Erikson and Jonsson 1996; Breen et al. 2009）。德国存在的比较严重的教育不平等通常归因于其学校系统的刚性结构，学生们很早就被引导到不同的学校轨道，这些轨道定义了他们未来教育道路的界限。近年来，为了减少教育机会的不平等，在德国的跟踪系统中引入了一些灵活的因素。值得注意的是，作为传统学校的替代选择，综合学校的兴起可能为来自弱势背景的学生提供新的教育机会。然而，我们对谁能进入综合学校知之甚少，也不知道上综合学校对学生的教育成就和成就有什么影响。拟议项目的目的是调查综合性学校是否，为谁，以及在何种背景条件下可以增加教育机会。特别是，该项目首先打算研究哪些个人和机构因素影响学生进入综合学校的机会，其次，进入综合学校是否能提高学生能力发展和中学成绩的机会。在这两个研究阶段，将特别关注不同学校表现记录和社会背景的影响的异质性。因此，该项目的贡献将是双重的。在实质性层面上，该项目旨在了解综合学校是否能够兑现减少德国教育体系中存在的明显的机会不平等的承诺。在理论层面上，它旨在加深我们对综合学校的社会选择性以及它们对学生成绩和成就的影响发生的过程的理解。该项目将通过分析国家教育小组研究（NEPS）的数据，重点关注2010/11学年进入综合学校的学生。起始队列3和4将匹配，以获得从5年级到13年级的扩展面板。

Social inequalities in educational attainment are an inherent feature of modern societies. However, the degree to which individual educational outcomes are affected by social origin varies across institutional contexts (Shavit and Blossfeld 1993; Erikson and Jonsson 1996; Breen et al. 2009). The comparably strong educational inequalities existing in Germany are often attributed to the rigid structure of its school system, where students are channeled early on into distinct school tracks that define the boundaries of their future educational pathways. In recent years, a number of reforms have introduced elements of flexibility in the German tracking system, with the purported aim of reducing inequality of educational opportunities. Notably, the rise of comprehensive schools as an alternative to the traditional school tracks could open up new educational chances for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, we know remarkably little about who gets access to comprehensive schools and what the consequences of attending such schools for students' educational achievement and attainment are.The aim of the proposed project is to investigate whether, for whom, and under which contextual conditions comprehensive schools can increase educational opportunities. In particular, the project intends firstly to examine which individual and institutional factors affect students' chances of access to comprehensive schools, and secondly whether attending a comprehensive school enhances students' chances of competence development and secondary-school attainment. In both research stages, particular attention will be given to the heterogeneity of the effects across different records of school performance and social background. The contribution of the project would therefore be two-fold. On a substantive level, the project aims at understanding whether comprehensive schools can keep the promise of reducing the stark inequalities of opportunity existing in the German educational system. On a theoretical level, it aims at deepening our understanding of the processes through which on the one hand the social selectivity of comprehensive schools and on the other hand their influence on students' achievement and attainment, take place. The project will focus on students who entered comprehensive schools in 2010/11 by analyzing data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Starting cohorts 3 and 4 will be matched in order to obtain an extended panel from 5th to 13th grade.