Does Educational Tracking Affect Performance and Inequality? Differences-in-Differences Evidence across Countries / Eric A. Hanushek, Ludger Woessmann.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hanushek, Eric A.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Woessmann, Ludger.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w11124.

NBER working paper series no. w11124

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2005.

Summary:

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.

Notes:

Print version record

February 2005.