Tracking and inequality of learning outcomes in Hungarian secondary schools

Horn, Dániel; Balázsi, Ildikó; Takács, Szabolcs; Zhang, Yanhong

doi:10.1007/s11125-006-9003-9

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The difference in literacy between the academic and vocational routes at secondary level is striking: students on the academic track score close to the best PISA performers, while students in the lowest level track of vocational training score near the bottom of the PISA rank. Naturally, this difference stem mainly from the fact that tracks have very different student intake (Horn, Balázsi, Takács, & Zhang, 2006). Second, during the transition, Hungary in effect decreased the first age of selection; two new types of academic track were introduced, which select the best children at ages 10 and 12, as opposed to the traditional age of selection at 14.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diverging performances: the detrimental effects of early educational selection on equality of opportunity in Hungary

Horn

2013

Research in Social Stratification and Mobility

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The Hungarian system is ideal to test the effect of early-selection on inequality of opportunity, since students are selected at three different ages. The early-selective academic tracks skim off the best students first at age 10, then at age 12, and finally at age 14 all students enter secondary level. The paper first shows that higher socioeconomic status students are more likely to attend the early-selective academic tracks, even if previous test scores are controlled for. The second part of the empirical analysis looks at the value-added of the separate tracks between 6th and 8th grade, and between 8th and 10th grade, and shows that their mathematical and reading performance diverges, even if skill and status selection is taken into account. Since higher socioeconomic status students are more likely to attend academic tracks than their lower status peers, the divergence in test scores translates to increasing inequality of opportunity. The Section 3 of the empirics looks at whether this process is a Pareto improvement, or whether there are groups in society that lose by the early-selection. It is shown that those who are left in general schools in areas where the best students can opt-out to early-selective tracks perform worse in mathematics than similar students in general tracks with no option of leaving. That is, selection harms those who are left behind. The paper speculates that these results are due to the different peer and teacher quality of the different tracks.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diverging performances: the detrimental effects of early educational selection on equality of opportunity in Hungary

Horn

2013

Research in Social Stratification and Mobility

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“…Schools are free to select and admit only those students who suit them. Horn et al (2006), basing their analysis on PISA 2003 data, show the dramatic disparities in student performance among the three tracks in Hungary: academic, vocational secondary and vocational. Those authors show that the achievement gap is related to differences in the socioeconomic status of the students' families.…”

Section: Educational Systems In the Four Countries In The Context Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

Common legacy, different paths: the transformation of educational systems in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland

Herbst

Wojciuk

2016

Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education

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“…As a result, the direct effect of social origin was smaller at the tertiary level transition point (Róbert 1991). More recent studies have looked at the outcome differences between these tracks and argued that whereas there is a clear and strong selection of students between these tracks based on their ability and their social background, there is no observable performance difference between the academic secondary track and the vocational secondary track once this selection is accounted for (Horn et al 2006). However, it is also argued that apprenticeship/vocational training tracks provide a smaller value-added in math or reading compared to the other two tracks (Hermann 2013).…”

Section: The Early Tracking Model 4 Main Mechanisms For Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early tracking and competition – A recipe for major inequalities in Hungary

Horn¹,

Keller²,

Róbert³

2016

Models of Secondary Education and Social Inequality

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Tracking and inequality of learning outcomes in Hungarian secondary schools

Cited by 14 publications

References 2 publications

Diverging performances: the detrimental effects of early educational selection on equality of opportunity in Hungary

Diverging performances: the detrimental effects of early educational selection on equality of opportunity in Hungary

Common legacy, different paths: the transformation of educational systems in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland

Early tracking and competition – A recipe for major inequalities in Hungary

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