Early Tracking and Social Inequality in Educational Attainment: Educational Reforms in 21 European Countries

This article studies socioeconomic inequalities in educational attainment in 21 European countries for cohorts born between 1925 and 1989, and asks the question whether reforms to track students later in the school career have reduced inequalities. Country fixed effects models show that inequalities by parental occupational class were reduced after policies were implemented that separated children for different school careers at a later age (i.e., postponed between-school tracking). The association between parents’ education and children’s attainment is hardly affected by reforms to later tracking. The results remained after taking into account the political climate preceding reforms, and were also highly robust to the selection of countries. A reduction of inequality was achieved through a loss of attainment by the children of advantaged backgrounds. Political implications and the relevance of these findings for American debates are discussed.