Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/33201 
Year of Publication: 
2005
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1901
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
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-in-differences 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.
Subjects: 
tracking
streaming
ability grouping
selectivity
comprehensive school system
education performance
inequality
international student achievement test
TIMSS
PISA
PIRLS
JEL: 
I2
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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