Does Educational Tracking Affect Performance and Inequality? Differences-in-Differences Evidence across Countries

Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann

No 1901, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

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.

Keywords: educational performance; comprehensive school system; selectivity; ability grouping; streaming; tracking; inequality; international student achievement test; TIMSS; PISA; PIRLS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2005-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hrm, nep-lam, nep-ltv and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Published - published in: Economic Journal, 2006, 116 (510), C63-C76

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Related works:
Journal Article: Does Educational Tracking Affect Performance and Inequality? Differences- in-Differences Evidence Across Countries (2006)
Working Paper: Does educational tracking affect performance and inequality? differences-in-differences evidence across countries (2006)
Working Paper: Does Educational Tracking Affect Performance and Inequality? Differences-in-Differences Evidence across Countries (2005)
Working Paper: Does Educational Tracking Affect Performance and Inequality? Differences-in-Differences Evidence across Countries (2005)
Working Paper: Does Educational Tracking Affect Performance and Inequality? Differences-in-Differences Evidence across Countries (2005)
Working Paper: Does Education Tracking Affect Performance and Inequality? Differences-In-Differences Evidence Across Countries (2005)
Working Paper: Does Education Tracking Affect Performance and Inequality? Differences-In-Differences Evidence Across Countries (2005)
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