Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Elite Schools, Elite Ambitions? The Consequences of Secondary-Level School Choice Sorting for Tertiary-Level Educational Choices
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology. Institute for Future Studies, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4398-5033
2020 (English)In: European Sociological Review, ISSN 0266-7215, E-ISSN 1468-2672, Vol. 36, no 4, p. 594-609Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

We ask if school choice, through its effect on sorting across schools, affects high school graduates’ application decisions to higher education. We exploit a school choice reform that dramatically increased achievement sorting across secondary schools in the municipality of Stockholm, employing a before–after design with a control group of students in similar schools located outside this municipality. The reform had a close to zero mean effect on the propensity to apply for tertiary educational programs, but strongly affected the self-selection by achievement into the kinds of higher educational programs applied for. Low achievers increased their propensity to apply for the ‘low-status’ educational programs, on average destining them to less prestigious, less well-paid occupations, and high achievers increased their propensity to apply for ‘high-status’ educational programs, on average destining them to more prestigious, well-paid occupations. The results suggest that increased sorting across schools reinforces differences across schools and groups in ‘cultures of ambition’. Although these effects translate into relatively small increases in the gender gap, the immigration gap, and the parental education gap in educational choice, our results indicate that school choice, and the increased sorting it leads to, through conformity mechanisms in schools polarizes educational choices of students across achievement groups.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2020. Vol. 36, no 4, p. 594-609
National Category
Sociology
Research subject
Sociology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-180509DOI: 10.1093/esr/jcaa008ISI: 000607080400007OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-180509DiVA, id: diva2:1417806
Funder
Forte, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, 2011-0968Available from: 2020-03-30 Created: 2020-03-30 Last updated: 2024-10-24Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Social Influence and Educational Decisions: Studies on Peer Influence in Secondary Education
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Social Influence and Educational Decisions: Studies on Peer Influence in Secondary Education
2018 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This thesis examines the role of peers when students’ educational decisions are formed. The thesis uses rich administrative data from Sweden, which provides opportunities to follow students over different transitions in their educational career and assess the role of peers in different educational situations. The thesis consists of one introductory chapter and four empirical studies. Study I examines how peers influence each other’s applications to upper secondary education through two different influence functions, where students both conform to their peers’ ambitious decisions and simultaneously can be discouraged from ambitious decisions by high-achieving peers. Study II builds on the findings from Study I and examines if students who conform to their peers’ educational ambitions and enroll in ambitious and demanding educations are more prone to leave such educations since their applications potentially were too myopic when influenced by their peers. Study III examines how students’ decisions to apply to gender typical and gender atypical upper secondary educations were affected by their peers. The study additionally examines if students enrolled in atypical educations are more likely to leave the education and if such decisions are mediated by the peer composition in their upper secondary education. Study IV examines how an admission reform to upper secondary education, which increased the sorting of students on achievements, affected application behavior to different tertiary education.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, 2018. p. 33
Series
Stockholm studies in sociology, ISSN 0491-0885 ; 74
Keywords
Peer influence, educational decisions, school leaving, application behavior, reference group
National Category
Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Research subject
Sociology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-160739 (URN)978-91-7797-492-5 (ISBN)978-91-7797-493-2 (ISBN)
Public defence
2018-11-16, William-Olssonsalen, Geovetenskapens hus, Svante Arrhenius väg 14, Stockholm, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Note

At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.

Available from: 2018-10-24 Created: 2018-10-03 Last updated: 2022-02-26Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Bygren, MagnusRosenqvist, Erik

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Bygren, MagnusRosenqvist, Erik
By organisation
Department of Sociology
In the same journal
European Sociological Review
Sociology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 317 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf