Big-Fish-Little-Pond effect: The negative effects of academically selective schools

Abstract

Academically selective schools (i.e. schools in which the average ability of students in the school is high) are intended to have positive effects on academic self-concept. A positive self-belief about one’s academic accomplishments is an important outcome and has been shown to facilitate the attainment of a wide variety of other desirable educational outcomes (Marsh & Craven, 2006). However, a growing body of theoretical and empirical research demonstrates that the effects of school-average ability on academic self-concept can be negative. Thus, attending academically selective schools tends to diminish academic self-concepts rather than to enhance them. These empirical results are consistent with the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE), which predicts that equally able students have lower academic self-concepts when attending schools where the average ability levels of classmates is high, and higher academic self-concepts when attending schools where the school-average ability is low. Here we briefly summarise theoretical, empirical, and policy-related implications of the BFLPE.