Complex inequalities of educational opportunities: A large-scale longitudinal study on the relation between gender, SES, ethnicity, and school success

It is well documented that stratification in education precedes social stratification. Many authors hypothesise that the stratification patterns in education may be related to background characteristics of students in a more complex way than researched so far in this field. Therefore, in this article the interactive effects of social class, ethnicity and gender on various indicators for school success are analysed and discussed. A large-scale longitudinal database offered the possibility to establish the complex relations between the three student background variables and school careers, measured by educational attainment 6 years after entering secondary education and by technical or science related choices. Results show that school success is not always predicted by expected additive or multiplicative effects of the different background variables. For example the situation of girls from ethnic minorities is better than expected, while that of indigenous boys from low socio-economic backgrounds is worse when compared to similar boys from ethnic minorities. Inequalities arising from different choice patterns regarding technical and science subjects can only partly be deduced from differences present at the age of 12, whereas in terms of general educational attainment secondary schools even reduce arrears of ethnic minority female students as these can be observed at the age of 12.