Session Information
09 SES 05 C, Social Disparities in Education (Part 2)
Paper Session
Contribution
The aim of our paper is threefold: Firstly, we examine different theories of discrimination with regard to their explanatory power for the development of discrimination in marks as given by the teacher. Secondly, we propose a rational choice model that might provide a better explanation to the phenomenon at hand. Thirdly, we take a comparative look at two German federal states. Our comparative take on the problem of socially biased marks should be fruitful in future research that seeks to explain different levels of discriminatory biases in marks, recommendations, and similar educational outcomes.
We consider three theories that lead to different predictions about the development of discrimination against students from lower social classes in marking (subjects: German, mathematics) at the end of primary school (3rd and 4th grade). While the theory of taste discrimination leads to the prediction of stable discrimination over this short period of time, models of statistical discrimination suggest a decline, and from our rational choice model we hypothesize an increase in discrimination before the crucial transition to grade 5. As for the two federal states, we expect – on the backdrop of our rational choice model – a higher increase in Bavaria compared to Hesse due to different regulations at the transition from primary to secondary school (e.g. marks are more important for the transition to upper secondary schools in Bavaria).
We use recently (from 2006 onwards) collected panel data of primary school pupils (N>2100) from the BiKS project ("Educational processes, competence development, and selection decisions in preschool and elementary school"). Using growth curve models, we analyze the development of group differences in marks over 3 waves conditional on relevant covariates (e.g. test scores).
Lending support to our rational choice model, preliminary results suggest that group differences in marks along social class increase before the transition to secondary school. Results further show that this increase is more pronounced in Bavaria than in Hesse, indicating the impact of the institutional setting. Further analyses are expected to yield similar results.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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