PowerPointPrsentation

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Strength, Sources, and Temporal Development of
Primary Effects of Families Social Status on
Secondary School Choice Volker
Stocké   BiKSUniversity of Bamberg,
Germany Mannheim Center for European Social
ResearchUniversity of Mannheim,
Germany Prepared for Presentation at the EDUC
Research Group Workshop, November 22-24 2007,
Dijon, France.
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• Outline of the Presentation
• Research Project MEPS 2. Research Question of
  this Paper3. Theoretical Background 4. Previous
  Research5. Sample, Data, and Procedure6.
  Empirical Results

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1. Research Project Educational Aspirations,
Reference Groups and Educational Decisions Aims
of the project A. Explaining how families
social status affects childrens
educational attainment. - Lower status
students have weaker academic abilities ?
Explaining Primary Effects - Despite equal
academic abilities, lower status families
nevertheless choose less ambitious school
carriers ? Explaining Secondary Effects
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B. Test of Rational Choice Theory of educational
decisions and educational inequality
(Breen Goldthorpe 1997, Erikson Jonsson
1996 Esser 1999). C. Test of Frame-Selection
Model (Esser 2001) Educational decisions are
expected to be under certain conditions the
result of rational choice, but often effects
of rational incentives constrained by social
norms, attitudes and habits. ?
Rational-Choice as special case of a more
general theory of action.
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Design of the Project Four Parts of the
ProjectA. Standardized Achievement Tests with
997 primary school students in the classroom
context (2 wave longitudinal design)
Participation rate - Wave 1 93.0 -
Wave 2 88.6
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• B. Questionnaire study with parents(3 wave
  longitudinal design, Wave 1 N997)
• Parents social background- Families capital
  endowment- Subjective beliefs and evaluations-
  Parents social networks
• Response ratesWave 1 45.5 Wave 2 89.9
  Wave 3 94.8

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C. Questionnaire study with social network (Cross
sectional design N1.800) - Measurement of
social influences from reference group without
relying only on parents perceptions of their
social context ? social framing. Response Rate
69.2 (of those we obtained contact
information)
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D. Questionnaire study with teachers (N127)
Measurement of - students classroom
behavior- students marks- parents involvement
in school related issues- parents attempts to
influence teachers.
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• E. Project continues 2006-2008 - Explaining
  class differences in school achievement in the
  secondary school chosen in 2005.
• Testing Expected Value Theory of Achievement
  Motivation (Eccles Wigfield 2002) vs. Frame
  Selection Model (Esser 2001).
• - Analyzing effects of students peer group in
  interaction with effects of parents social
  network.

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• 2. Research Questions of this Paper
• Which indicator for academic competencies most
  exhaustively captures primary effects of
  parents educational and occupational status?
  Childrens test scores Parents
  achievement beliefs Teachers marks
• Is the temporal development of competencies a
  relevant indicator for primary effects as well?
• Is the mothers or the fathers status the more
  important source of primary effects?
• What is the relative strength of primary and
  secondary effects?

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• 3. Theoretical Background
• Total effect of families social status on
  educational outcomes (Boudon 1974 and RCT)
• Primary effects Status differences in
  resources beneficial for learning ?
  competency differences ? differentiation in
  success probabilities ? differences in
  educational decisions
• Secondary effects Status differences in costs
  and returns of education ? differences in
  educational decisions when competencies
  equal

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4. Previous Research Relative strength of
effect of fathers and mothers educational and
occupational status Both parents education
exert net-effects on educational outcomes
(Dustmann 2004 Sieben et al. 2001). Mothers
effect proves stronger (Haveman and Wolfe 1995)
or even to be the only significant effect (Arum
1998). Both parents occupational status was
found to exert net-effects, even when controlling
for their education (Kalmijn 1994 Korupp et al.
2002).
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Temporal development of primary effects
Results show that the effect of the parents
SES (Alexander Entwisle 1996) and their
education (Swanson Schneider 1999) on
childrens tested academic abilities grew
stronger between the first and eighth as well as
between the eighth and the twelfth grades. This
was found for the net-effect of the mothers and
fathers occupational status as well (Feinstein
2003).
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• Existence of secondary effects
• Evidence shows that direct effects of different
  indicators of families social status remain
  significant when either marks, examination
  results, or test scores are controlled (e.g.,
  Alexander and Entwisle 2001 Ganzach 2000 Powers
  and Wojtkiewicz 2004).

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• Relative strength of primary and secondary
  effects
• Using counterfactual analyses, it was found with
  data from Britain and Wales that primary effects
  account, depending on the birth cohort, for
  between 55 to 80 percent (examination results)
  and for between 23 and 39 percent (test scores)
  of all effects of the fathers class position
  (Erikson et al. 2005 Jackson et al. in press).
• A study with data from Stockholm has shown that
  differences in grade points accounted in 1990 for
  57 (girls) and 58 (boys) percent of the fathers
  class effect on the transition to upper secondary
  school.

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• 5. Sample, Data and Procedure
• Population Families with children in the 3rd
  grade of primary school in Rhineland-Palatinate,
  Germany (school recommendation not binding)
  Design
• Two parental interviews before, one after
  secondary school decision
• Standardized achievement tests with children
  parallel to first two parental interviews

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• Sample
• Random sample of 48 primary schools- Within
  schools all families of the population N989
• Complete data available for all constructs
  N747- 81.3 (N607) selected school type
  which, when completed, leads to clearly
  defined degree
• (? analysis sample)

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• Data Relevant for this Paper
• Parent interviews (1st wave - CAPI)- Parents
  social class and education
• Parents achievement beliefs (t1)
• Parent interviews (2nd wave - CATI)- Parents
  achievement beliefs (t2)
• - Teachers marks (t1 t2)

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• Parent interviews (3rs wave - CATI)- Decision
  about educational tracks
• Standardized achievement tests (Wave 1 and 2)
• - Educational counseling test (t1 t2)
• Temporal distance t1 t2
• Test scores 13 months- Parents achievement
  beliefs 16 months
• Teachers marks 12 months

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• Operationalization
• Educational Decision
• Selection of secondary school track at the end of
  primary school (mid of 4th grade children on
  average 10.1 years old)
• Options - Lower Second. (Hauptschule)
  4.3 (20.2)- Intermed. Second.
  (Realschule) 27.0 (31.9)- Upper Second.
  (Gymnasium) 68.7 (47.9)
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  100.0

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2. Occupational Status EGP-Class
Fathers Mothers Service class (I, II)
48.8 42.8 Intermed. class (IIIa, IV, V)
17.0 36.2Qualif. working (IIIb, VI)
17.0 14.8Unqualified working (VII) 6.6
2.8 Missing 10.7 3.3
100.0 100.0
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3. Educational Status Completed Educational
Degrees Fathers Mothers Lower
Second. Degree 26.0 14.8 Intermediate
Sec. Degree 24.2 40.2 Upper Sec. Degree
44.8 44.7 Missing
4.9 0.3
100.0 100.0
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Fig.1.1 Net-Effects of Mothers Education on the
Probability for Selecting an Upper Secondary
School Track
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Fig. 1.2 Net-Effects of Mothers Education on
the Probability for Selecting an Upper Secondary
School Track
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Fig. 2.1 Net-Effects of Mothers Occupational
Status on the Probability for Selecting an Upper
Secondary School Track
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Fig. 2.2 Net-Effects of Mothers Occupational
Status on the Probability for Selecting an Upper
Secondary School Track
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• Summary
• We found test scores, parents achievement
  beliefs, and teachers marks to be differentiated
  by parents social class Mothers social class
  exerts the strongest and fathers social class
  the weakest primary effects. Both parents
  educational status had a medium and similarly
  strong impact on the childrens competencies.
• Over time, the strength of the weak effects of
  the fathers status dimensions increases and the
  one of the strong effects of the mothers is
  becoming weaker in strength.

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Mannheim
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(3) Only the mothers educational and
occupational status exerts significant
net-effects on the decision between secondary
school tracks, whereas the fathers status
characteristics proved to be completely
irrelevant. (4) Among the three competence
indicators the teachers marks were found to be
the strongest determinant of educational
decisions and most exhaustively explained the
effect of the mothers educational (28.6) as
well as occupational (47.1) status. (5)
Utilizing all competence indicators led to higher
estimates of primary effects of the educational
(44.9) and occupational (52.9) status.
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Mannheim
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(6) Additionally taking the temporal development
of the childrens competencies into account
further increased the estimated primary effects
of the educational (50.0) and occupational
(70.6) status. (7) Thus, not taking the full
set of competency indicators into account, but
only the teachers marks, underestimates primary
effects by 21.4 percentage points (educational
status) and 23.5 percentage points (occupational
status).
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Mannheim
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(8) Previous research, utilizing the fathers
class as an indicator for social origin and the
childrens examination results as a competency
measure, found primary effects to account in
Britain and Wales for between 73 and 80 percent
(Erikson et al. 2005 Jackson et al. in press)
and in Sweden for between 57 and 58 percent
(Erikson 2007) of the total status effect. For
Germany, also only taking the effects of
teachers marks into account, we estimated 47
percent of the significant effects of the
mothers class to be due to primary effects.
Thus, primary effects are less relevant for the
inequality in educational opportunity in our
German sample.
Sonderforschungsbereich 504 - University of
Mannheim