Late School Tracking, Less Class Bias in Educational Decision-Making? The Uncertainty Reduction Mechanism and Its Experimental Testing

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2236053
AutoresJoël Berger (0000-0001-8148-1093, University of Zurich, autor de correspondencia), Benita Combet (0000-0003-3711-4215, FORS – Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Páginasjcw054
Fecha de publicación2016-12-27
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEuropean Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0266-7215 • E-ISSN: 1468-2672
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/esr/jcw054
OpenAlexW2564476467
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10
Referencias citadas26

A long-standing hypothesis in the sociology of education is that the timing of ability tracking impacts the inequality of educational opportunity. While earlier studies mainly focused on how early tracking impacts the primary effect of social origin (systematic performance differences due to social background), the impact of early tracking on the secondary effect of social origin (class-specific educational decision-making) has been neglected. Recently, the idea has been put forward that late tracking decreases uncertainty in educational decision-making, thus enabling more rational decision-making by lower-class individuals. Extending this idea, we propose the uncertainty reduction mechanism (URM) as a theoretical foundation; this mechanism can be derived from a decision-theoretic model on educational decision-making based on prospect theory. Moreover, we perform a first empirical test of the URM by means of a computerized laboratory experiment. The evidence is in line with the model predictions and the results support the intuition that a postponement of tracking could reduce the negative bias of lower-class individuals in educational decision-making, thereby reducing educational inequality with respect to social background.

Class (philosophy) · Economics · Educational inequality · Epistemology · Inequality · Intuition · Mechanism (biology) · Operations management · Pedagogy · Postponement · Social class · Social inequality · Tracking (education) · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies · Mathematics · Psychology · School Choice and Performance · Social Psychology · Youth Substance Use and School Attendance