Origine sociale, transitions vers la formation secondaire supérieure et inégalités de formation en Suisse

Abstract

Auf Grund der frühen Selektion der Schüler dürfte der Übergang zur Sekundarstufe II eine starke Wirkung auf die Bildungsungleichheit in der Schweiz haben. Dieser Befund wird durch vorhandene Brücken zur tertiären Bildung relativiert. Wir verwenden die TREE-Daten, eine Längsschnittstudie, welche die Entwicklung von Personen verfolgt, die an der PISA-Erhebung 2000 teilgenommen haben. Dank dieser Daten verfügen wir über Informationen zu Ausbildungsverlauf (Übergänge), Kompetenzentwicklung und familiärem Umfeld. Wir benutzen ein sequentielles Modell, welches die Bildungsungleichheit zerlegt und nach der Bedeutung der verschiedenen Übergänge gewichtet. Es wird aufgezeigt, dass die Auswirkungen von Übergängen zwischen Bildungsstufen auf die Ungleichheit stark von individuellen Fähigkeiten und dem Geschlecht abhängen.Abstract: Transitions to upper secondary education may shape inequalities in Switzerland, which is characterized by early tracking and an extensive vocational track. Yet, pathways inside the schooling system may lower the impact of schooling decisions taking place at age 15. We use micro-data from TREE, a follow-up of the Swiss sample of PISA 2000, where upper secondary school choices can be observed together with cognitive ability and fam-ily background variables. We estimate a sequential model, which allows breaking down educational outcomes between inequality of opportunities at various transitions inside and the weights of these transitions. We show that the importance of educational transitions heavily depends on ability and gender 6 Conclusion In this paper, we investigate intergenerational mobility with respect to educational attainment in Switzerland. We make use of data from TREE, a follow-up of PISA 2000, which combines information on ability at age 15 and longitudinal information. Our goal is to analyze the cumulative feature of education as we estimate a sequential logit model. We are particulatly interested in transitions leading to the vocational matura, as this new qualification may provide new opportunities for individuals following the vocational track. Subsequently, we endeavor to measure whether inequality of educational opportunities measured at various transitions points implies inequality of educational outcomes. Our results show that parental background variables matter for most transitions. This is especially true with respect to the ttansition towatds the vocational matura, which takes place approximately at age 19 or later. Our results also point to important gender effects. Parental education and reading test score coefficients ate positively correlated with choosing the vocational matura for men, while the reverse is true for women. This could be explained by the fact that VET is relatively less attractive for women, due to the type of occupations in which this type of training takes place. When we turn to the link between these intergenerational correlations and inequality of educational outcomes, our results show that the effects of parental background heavily depend on the skill level of individuals. Inequality of outcomes is a weighted mean of inequality of opportunities. The weights depend on the population facing transition, the expected gains and the variance of passing a transition. For low ability students, parental background variables have an impact on inequality of outcomes only with respect to dropping out of school. This is explained by the fact that low ability students are quite unlikely to face transitions towards higher education. Parental background variables also have limited impacts on high ability children as they are sorted into higher forms of education, independently of their social characteristics. With respect to transitions to vocational matura, our results show that parental education increases the probability of pursuing education for both women and men. Yet, it only has an impact on the inequality of educational outcomes for the latter as the weight of this transition is small for women.Du fait de la sélection précoce des élèves, les transitions vers la formation secondaire supérieure sont susceptibles d’avoir un fort effet sur les inégalités de formation en Suisse. Ce constat est pondéré par l’existence de passerelles vers la formation tertiaire. Nous utilisons les données de TREE qui est un suivi longitudinal de personnes ayant participé à PISA 2000. Ainsi, nous disposons d’informations sur les transitions scolaires, les compétences des élèves et leur milieu familial. Nous estimons un modèle séquentiel, qui nous permet de décomposer les inégalités scolaires selon l’importance des différentes transitions. Nous montrons que l’impact d’une transition sur les inégalités de formation dépend fortement des capacités des individus ainsi que du genre