{"title":"Ability grouping in German secondary schools: The effect of non-academic track schools on the development of Math competencies","authors":"Sonja Herrmann, Katharina M. Bach","doi":"10.1111/bjep.12741","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n \n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Background</h3>\n \n <p>Differences in competence gains between academic and non-academic track schools are often attributed to selection effects based on students' primary school performance and socioeconomic status (SES). However, how the competencies of comparable students (in terms of school performance and social background) at different tracks develop is often neglected.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Aims</h3>\n \n <p>We investigated whether comparable students diverge in their math competencies due to attending different types of secondary schools, contributing to the ongoing debate on whether inaccurate stratification may lead to disadvantages.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Methods</h3>\n \n <p>Using data from the National Education Panel Study (Kindergarten Cohort SC2, <i>N</i> = 4180), we examined students' competence development from the fourth to seventh grade.</p>\n \n <p>We employed a quasi-experimental design (propensity score weighting, PSW) comparing similarly capable students at academic and non-academic school tracks to make causal inferences. The outcome variable was students' math competence in seventh grade. PSW used fourth-grade competency measures in math and reading and other variables such as sex, migration background, SES, class composition, special educational needs, school grades and school location.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Results</h3>\n \n <p>Results revealed a significant average treatment effect on the treated, indicating that comparable students attending non-academic track schools show lower math performance than those at academic track schools.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Conclusion</h3>\n \n <p>Non-academic tracks seem to hinder the full development of students' competencies. We conclude that the effects of preconditions like the students' SES, ability and aspirations on competence development are lower than assumed and that school learning environments should be given greater importance. We discuss practical solutions and provide suggestions for future research.</p>\n </section>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":51367,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Educational Psychology","volume":"95 2","pages":"578-602"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjep.12741","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"British Journal of Educational Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjep.12741","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATIONAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background
Differences in competence gains between academic and non-academic track schools are often attributed to selection effects based on students' primary school performance and socioeconomic status (SES). However, how the competencies of comparable students (in terms of school performance and social background) at different tracks develop is often neglected.
Aims
We investigated whether comparable students diverge in their math competencies due to attending different types of secondary schools, contributing to the ongoing debate on whether inaccurate stratification may lead to disadvantages.
Methods
Using data from the National Education Panel Study (Kindergarten Cohort SC2, N = 4180), we examined students' competence development from the fourth to seventh grade.
We employed a quasi-experimental design (propensity score weighting, PSW) comparing similarly capable students at academic and non-academic school tracks to make causal inferences. The outcome variable was students' math competence in seventh grade. PSW used fourth-grade competency measures in math and reading and other variables such as sex, migration background, SES, class composition, special educational needs, school grades and school location.
Results
Results revealed a significant average treatment effect on the treated, indicating that comparable students attending non-academic track schools show lower math performance than those at academic track schools.
Conclusion
Non-academic tracks seem to hinder the full development of students' competencies. We conclude that the effects of preconditions like the students' SES, ability and aspirations on competence development are lower than assumed and that school learning environments should be given greater importance. We discuss practical solutions and provide suggestions for future research.
背景:学术与非学术田径学校之间能力增益的差异通常归因于基于学生小学表现和社会经济地位(SES)的选择效应。然而,不同轨道的可比学生(在学校表现和社会背景方面)的能力如何发展往往被忽视。目的:我们调查了可比性学生是否因就读不同类型的中学而在数学能力上存在差异,这有助于对不准确的分层是否会导致劣势的持续争论。方法:使用国家教育小组研究(幼儿园队列SC2, N = 4180)的数据,对四年级至七年级学生的能力发展进行了调查。我们采用了准实验设计(倾向得分加权,PSW),比较了学术和非学术学校的能力相似的学生,以做出因果推论。结果变量为七年级学生的数学能力。PSW使用了四年级的数学和阅读能力测试,以及其他变量,如性别、移民背景、社会经济地位、班级构成、特殊教育需求、学校成绩和学校位置。结果:结果显示了显著的平均治疗效果,表明非学术性田径学校的学生比学术性田径学校的学生表现出更低的数学成绩。结论:非学术性课程似乎阻碍了学生能力的全面发展。我们的结论是,学生的社会经济地位、能力和期望等先决条件对能力发展的影响低于假设,学校学习环境应该得到更大的重视。讨论了可行的解决方案,并对今后的研究提出了建议。
期刊介绍:
The British Journal of Educational Psychology publishes original psychological research pertaining to education across all ages and educational levels including: - cognition - learning - motivation - literacy - numeracy and language - behaviour - social-emotional development - developmental difficulties linked to educational psychology or the psychology of education